In need of a Kushinada
by ukyou1
Summary: After a trip to clear his mind, Kusanagi returns to Momiji in Izumo only to find that the arigami have returned and Momji has a new protector.
1. late night musings

Disclaimer: I do not own blue seed or any of the characters.

Chapter 1

Late night musings

A solitary figure looked out over Izumo from a perch high up in a tree.  His red trench coat flapped slightly as a light spring breeze played about his body.  He was enjoying the simple beauty it evinced on this clear starry night.  The full moon made the land one of silver and deepest green.  Time seemed to stand still as he drank in its beauty, letting it sooth his soul.  Soon he would see her again

He had only been gone 2 months and yet it felt like and eternity since he left.  Kusanagi had fled Izumo and more importantly, Momiji suddenly, and without thought, in a desperate attempt to clear his mind and decide what he needed to do.  Kusanagi knew Momiji thought she loved him, but, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was not good enough.  That he may never be good enough to deserve her love.

"She does not **need me anymore" he had told himself.  Once the TAC had come up with the theory of using two artificial Kushinada pulses aimed at some of the Kushinada ceramic to mimic Momiji's pulse, she was no longer believed to be in danger of being sacrificed to stop the Arigami.  America had been the only other nation that had had access to the Arigami mitamas and they had banned all future experiments so there was little chance of Arigami being reborn over seas.  After the televised Matsuri, no one within Japan could possibly want her to ever come to harm.  She did not even need someone to support her since she had returned her family's land with enough monetary gifts from the nation to support her and her future offspring comfortably for the rest of her life.  He had nothing to offer her except life with a freak.  **

For a few years, these thoughts had been nagging at Kusanagi.  Quieting for a bit after fighting the Arigami in America and growing in volume once more 5 months ago when Momiji decided to move back home.  Kusanagi had known Tokyo, its confusing streets and its hidden dangers.  Momiji still needed him there.  Heck, he could even blend in a bit since there were many artistic people there who died their hair and decorated their bodies.  While in Izumo, Kusanagi had learned the lay of the land quickly, Momiji seemed to know it just as well.  And as for fitting in, well, Izumo was still a bit old fashioned and he had yet to see someone looking as different as he did.  Aggravating things worse, before Momiji had move to Izumo, Sakura had realized that as the Kushinada Momiji must have some latent psychic powers and had taught Momiji ho to sense Kusanagi.  This meant that if he did not want to talk with Momiji he had to go completely away rather than just hiding from her view.  

All these things had been weighing on him, always chipping at his soul.  However, a simple seeming event had been what acted like a catalyst making his fears roar to a deafening level in his ears.  Causing Kusanagi to flee Izumo wrapped up even further in his own inner turmoil.  Without taking a single item he had left, fleeing as fast as he could.  Kusanagi had flown till exhaustion forced him to slow and reflect upon what had happened.

Kusanagi had known Momiji was going to meet her best friend Akiko at the Kushinada shrine for a picnic and he had decided he would enjoy watching her since she would be too distracted to try to sense him out.  He still loved to watch her without being seen.  It was one of the most relaxing things he could do.  With all that Momiji had been thru she still radiated innocence and happiness.  Her careless way of walking (klutzy might be a better word) always made him smile.  Her eyes held nothing but kindness for the world.  When she had said she loved everyone during her sacrificial Matsuri she had meant it.  One could not stand in her light for long without loving her back.  Kusanagi thought of Momiji as a glowing mirror of love, always shinning brightest in the company of others.  Where ever Momiji went she could easily surround herself with friends and he wondered why she focused on him so much since he was more comfortable alone than in the company of others.

Unnoticed by Momiji and Akiko, Kusanagi had settled into a tree where he had a good view and could just make out their conversation.

"I wonder what type of father Kusanagi will be?"  Akiko had asked a blushing Momiji.

That was all Kusanagi heard before his mind became a racing jumble.  "Hell, I'm having a hard enough time being a boyfriend" he had muttered as he jumped away from their picnic spot afraid that his alarm might tip Momiji off to his presence.  

Most of Kusanagi's life had been spent living separate from humans like a wild animal.  It was not till Momiji had insisted that he needed a home, that he had rented an apartment with some of the Money the Government had rewarded him with.  Though he grew up almost wild, he wasn't ignorant.  Kusanagi had learned a lot about human interactions watching Kadea for all those years.  But, while it is easy to watch from the outside and gauge people's emotions and reasoning, it is much harder to participate and vainly try to figure out what people are thinking and feeling thru a veil of your own emotions and thoughts.  He felt even more inadequate at expressing his thoughts and worse yet his emotions.  His sarcastic wit was his only aid.  He loved the fire in Momiji's eyes when he teased, meaning to say he cared for her and disappeared, wanting to hold her forever.  Up till now he would flit in and out of Momiji's day whenever it suited him.  When things got to emotional and he felt could no longer think straight he would flit out and watch from the outside for a little bit, giving himself time to cool down.  

"Could I live like that if I had a child?"  Kusanagi had thought dumbstruck. The obvious answer was no.   "For that matter could I even have a child?"  Kusanagi pondered, never having thought that far ahead.  "If I could would the child be pure human or something else like me, a freak?"  Fears of ineptitude assailed him and Kusanagi had felt the need to distance himself for a little while to give himself some time to think.  Momiji tended to cloud his mind to all else except the need to be near her and the want to protect her.  Kusanagi needed a clear mind to think about what was best for Momiji.  So instead of stopping when he got far enough away so that Momiji could not sense him, Kusanagi fled in search of a place where he could think. 

Never had Kusanagi felt such turmoil.  Not even when Kaede had first come back after siding with the Arigami.  After two torturous months away, Kusanagi really felt like he really only had two choices.  The same ones he had been trying to decide between for years. The first choice being the get the hell out of her life so she would have to forget him and find a normal guy.  However, he did not think he was strong enough to leave her permanently so he was going to have to do the second choice even though it was not perfect no matter how much it turned his stomach.

He had hated watching Kadea go through the sometimes painful experiments done by the TAC as many of the lab technicians forgot that she was still a young girl.  His blood had boiled to see her treated like a thing only to be studied.  While Mrs. Matsudaira tried to make them be nice, in the mists of some experiments it would be forgotten that while Kaede did hold an awesome power, she was also a little girl who never got a childhood.  Kusanagi had tried to protect Momiji from the same experiences, though Momiji did not seem to mind the tests as much since they were done solely by Mrs. Matsudaira.  

"Momiji, because I love you so much and want you to be able to have the normal life you deserve, I'm going to turn to the TAC and let them examine me to their hearts content in the hopes that they might find a way to safely remove these damn mitamas so I can be normal for you."  He proclaimed to the night's air.  While he would still not deserve her love, at least he would be a normal human.

While Kusanagi was reflection upon these thoughts he realized he was sensing something.  One of his mitamas had starting to react and glow.  With his eye brows furrowed he concentrated and tried to put a name to what he was sensing.  With horror his eyes shot open.

**Arigami.**


	2. old enemy, new friend?

Disclaimer: I do not own blue seed or any of the characters.

Chapter 2

Old Enemy, New Friend? 

"No!!" Kusanagi cursed. "The Arigami should all still be sleeping. This should not be!" 

Kusanagi flew rapidly towards where he sensed the Arigami. As he got closer he slowed and took cover in the trees to allow him to access the situation unseen. First thing he noted with relief was that he could not sense Momiji any where nearby. "At least she is not in immediate danger," he sighed.

Immediate he spotted the Arigami and noted that in actuality there were two Arigami present. One was large and grotesque seeming to be made of a surging mass of mutated vines. The other was small, humanoid, and while distinctly female, it was covered head to toe with a dark green animorphic skin, changing shape during the battle, sometimes forming a shield, and other times forming sharp edges to attack with. However, the most interesting thing Kusanagi noticed was that the two Arigami were fighting each other.

Kusanagi watched the battle with interest. He needed a better understanding of this new threat. He noted that while the large vine Arigami was just trying the smash the smaller one, the humanoid Arigami was fighting more precisely and just trying to get to the mitama. He thought it strange that the smaller always returned to a normal humanoid form whenever it could since most Arigami choose to change their shapes into ones better suited to fighting and keep it. With that thought he started to focus on the humanoid Arigami more intently.

He watched her fight and cataloged everything that made her different than what he had dealt with in the past. It was definitely a female since there was no practical reason it to have breasts in a fight. "Definitely B cup," he thought with a smirk. Critically he observed her protective covering. She was covered from head to toe with a dark green substance that seemed to change to suit the arigami's needs rather than having a more permanent form of armor and weapons. He watched as the larger Arigami caught her in one of its vines. A split second later, spikes erupted from her body piercing the vine and forcing it to release her. As she leapt from slithering vine to slithering vine (like he used to) towards the larger Arigami's mitama, three tendrils shot out at her seeking to pierce her flesh. Before they could find their mark, what Kusanagi had taken for hair swung out to form a shield and deflected the tendrils while she formed knives at the end of her fingers and sliced off the tips of the tendrils. While she did not seem able to fly, at times when she would jump her hair would fan out and webbing would form between her arms and side and she would then glide through the air for short bits. From where Kusanagi was watching the fight he could tell that while the smaller Arigami was stronger, she was not a skilled fighter and did not use every advantage she could. Many times during the fight she would react barely in time. 

Kusanagi then heard talking but could not understand what was saying from where he was at. Silently he stalked closer and got an even better look at the Arigami. It was then that Kusanagi noted that while the larger Arigami had only one mitama near it top, the female one had two. One was embedded in each wrist, and they were an emerald green. With that observation he examined the larger Arigami and noted for the first time that its mitamas was green as well.

"Shit! A new type of Arigami has decided to grace Japan." He muttered. That was when he heard the large vine Arigami speak.

"You will not be able to hide the Kushinada from me for long" it grated. "She belongs to us!"

The humanoid Arigami responded in a strange echoing voice. "She belongs to no one! Least of all you!"

"Well that's all I need." Kusanagi quipped. He then released his arm blades. "Time for some herbicide," he said with the edges of his moth pulled into a hungry smile.

While the large vine beast was particularly distracted by the smaller Arigami slashing deep cuts along its main stalk, Kusanagi flew into battle. "You just made my day!" He exclaimed as he charged in from the beast's right and smashed its mitama before it could even focus on him. Instantly the vines seemed to shrivel in upon themselves until there was just a sickly, little bit of ivy left sprawled on the forest floor. 

Kusanagi turned to face the other Arigami, intent of learning what has been happening while he was gone and what was its intent towards Momiji, when he discovered he was now alone. "Shit" all he said before he started racing toward Momiji's home trying to feel out her familiar energy with his mitamas.

A dark figure quietly snuck into a bedroom window and came to stand in front of a mirror. Dark green plasma seemed to be sucked into two mitamas, one on each wrist. Until a young woman stood naked in front of the mirror.

"So, Kusanagi is back" Momiji quietly mused to herself.


	3. Greetings

Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Seed or any of its characters

Chapter 3

Greetings

Momiji had fled the fight as soon as she saw Kusanagi had entered it. Momiji knew he could easily defeat the Arigami. Plus, she had needed a bit of time.

As Momiji absently looked into her mirror an array of emotions and thoughts went rushing through her head. "I'm not ready to face him." She whined. "I don't want to tell him about my mitamas or what happened while he was gone." 

Looking down at her writs she mused, "I need a way to hide these."

Momiji looked down at the green mitamas embedded in her wrists and quickly pondered how to hide them. Her mitamas, when activated, made her able to change her skin and hair to form shields and weapons at will. "I wonder if I could change just a little bit of my skin and if I could choose what it would look like?"

She really had not experimented much. Tonight had only been the second time she had fought, and she had thought the first time would be the last time.

"Well, there was no reason not to try." She thought to herself. 

Momiji concentrated on her wrist, willing the skin around her mitamas to turn silver in color and texture. To her amazement it worked, and now it looked like she had silver wrists. She then refined it, making her silver skin rise up to surround her mitamas. Making it look like she was just wearing two silver bands with green stones in the middle. She then refined it further letting her creative side out to make it look like she wore two ornate bracelets with a green stone in each center.

With that finished she turned to go put on her pajamas. But, before she could even reach her dresser she heard her window scrape open and the light thud of someone entering her room. Quickly covering her breast with her arms Momiji turn to yell at a rather startled looking Kusanagi.

"KUSINAGI!! How dare you sneak in on an innocent girl while she is changing!" Momiji screeched, all the while, blushing clear down to her waist.

She was further infuriated by the fact that Kusanagi just stood there, staring. Backing up to her bed she ruthlessly grabbed her blanket off to cover herself and then flung her pillow at Kusanagi. Followed by a stuffed dog, a throw pillow, a slipper, as well as anything she could grab off her night table.

At this Kusanagi quickly raised his hands to defend himself and made a hasty retreat towards the window. "Hey! Hey! I didn't want to see your little baby butt anyways." He stated with a sarcastic tone. 

When she didn't stop hurling missiles he whined, "Is this how you greet someone who just got back from a trip?"

"Its how I greet that person if they sneak into my room while I'm not dressed." Momiji sniped.

Once she was assured he was outside she rushed towards her pajama drawer. As she hurriedly put her pajama on and tied her robe on over them, she wondered just why Kusanagi had come back. He hadn't so much as said goodbye when he left. She had been so worried that something bad had happened to him. Now she knew he was O.K. and he came back the same night the new Arigami had attacked. Her worst fear was that he had left her because he didn't want to be with her and had only come back when he sensed the Arigami because he felt obliged to protect her? Just the thought made her feel ill. Momiji tried to have faith, but the awful thought kept coming back.

"Are you dressed yet?" Kusanagi hollered, breaking into her thoughts.

"Yes" Momiji huffed. Before he was fully into her room she blurted out, "What are you doing here?" Shocked at how harsh her words sounded and not wanting to make him leave her again Momiji quickly babbled on. "Not that I want you to leave. I want you to stay. Not in my room of course. I was just surprised and I've been so worried about you. Where have you been?"

Kusanagi broke into rambling with the simple statement, "I saw two Arigami on the outskirts of Izumo."

Momiji stopped dead. She looked up to see Kusanagi standing tensely by the window, looking at her with an intense, expectant look. Her worst fear seemed confirmed. Kusanagi was here only because that other Arigami. Hurt turned into anger. "He could have at least had the decency to officially dump me. Well, this time I don't need his protection." She thought angrily. 

However, she knew if she tried to express her current emotions she would end up babbling like the idiot she thought she was. So instead she quietly said in a soft voice tinged with emotion, "Kusanagi, it is late and I need sleep." With that said she turn away from him, doused her light, and crawled into bed.

Kusanagi stood in the darkness for a couple of minutes before silently turning and slipping out the window. The last thing Momiji heard was her window softly shutting before she let her physical and emotional exhaustion overtake her.

  



	4. What is going on?

Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Seed or any of its characters, still

Chapter 4

What's Going On?

Kusanagi stood in stunned silence at Momiji's words for a few seconds before retreating outside. After sliding her window shut, he perched in one of the many trees surrounding her house and turned to glare at her darkened window.

"What the hell is going on!?" He silently yelled at himself. 

Things had been quiet for so long that he had not worried about Momiji's safety the whole time he had been gone. To return and find Arigami in Izumo had stunned and disturbed him. He still felt antsy from the adrenaline that shot through his system upon discovering their return.

However, Momiji's reactions that night were what truly confused him. 

When he had looked into Momiji's window and saw her pert, bare body, he could not resist. Kusanagi could never pass up a chance to fluster Momiji, especially if it meant he could see more of her delicious body. He had almost been over powered by his desire when she had flushed clear down to her navel. He had missed her so much those two months. He needed to find a way to be normal before he would embrace her the way he wanted to. Kusanagi felt his arm blade wanting to slip free with the emotional strain of trying to look calm. That was, at least until she stared to fling things. Nothing was more enticing than Momiji riled up. Kusanagi couldn't help goading her on with a sly remark about her baby butt. He knew he should not have, but, it was always so much fun. Momiji had truly been angry at him. But, that was how he had expected her to react.

What had him baffled was her reaction after his announcement that he had seen Arigami. He had expected her to show some surprise and then for her to simultaneously cling to him for protection while demanding to fight them with him. Instead he had seen a flicker of disappointment cross her face and not an ounce of surprise. And then, she just turn away from him and asked him to leave. He had expected her to at least be all over him about his absence. When he had first met Momiji she had been so different than Kadea, that he had had a hard time understanding why she did things. Kusanagi had thought he finally understood Momiji. Well Momiji has always been exasperating. He would figure out why she was acting so strangely later.

For now, he needed to focus on this new threat to his Kushinada. Momiji had not been surprised about the Arigami, so it stands to reason that she already knew about them. Since Momiji still telecommuted with the TAC, they probably knew what was going on, and were just late like usual about getting to the scene of the attack. With that thought he went to call Kunakida's cell.

However, the call did nothing to alleviate Kusanagi's feelings of unease.

It started with the phone needing to ring many times. Kusanagi was about to give up in disgust when it finally picked up.

"Hello?" croaked a sleepy voice.

"Mr. Kunakida, this is Kusanagi. I was just calling to let you know that you missed the Arigami attack to night. I also want to know how long this has been going on."

"WHAT?! Is this some sort of joke Kusanagi? What do you mean an Arigami attack?" Yelled Kunakida into the phone, becoming fully awake in an instant.

"You mean you did not know they were back as well?" Kusanagi all but yelled back into the phone. "I thought since Momiji was not surprised you were in on it."

"Momiji has been on vacation the past month and a half; she had not notified us she was back. I will be in Izumo by morning to find out what type of vacation she took. I'll call in Matsudaira to take samples of what's left. God dammit, won't they ever just Leave her alone!" With that Kunakida hung up and Kusanagi was left glaring at a dead phone.

With no answer to be found in the now dead phone, Kusanagi went to patrol the surroundings incase there were more surprises in store. "Why did I leave her alone" he lamented. 


	5. Her story

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Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Seed or any of its characters.

Chapter 5

Her Story

Momiji was forced to crack her eyes open due to the loud insistent pounding on her front door. With a groan, she rolled over to look at her clock. With bleary eyes she read the time as 7:08. 

"Who the hell would be bothering me at this hour?" Momiji grumped as she dragged her sorry carcass out of her warm, soft bed. She felt like she had been running a marathon for a week and then only allowed to take a half hour nap. 

With as much haste as she could muster, Momiji slipped on her robe and stumbled downstairs to the door. With a huff she ripped open the door to glare at whoever had dared to disturb her much needed sleep. Guilty shock overtook her as she stared into the red face of her surrogate father Kunakida. 

"Kunakida! Oh my gosh, what are you doing here?" Momiji stammered. All the while cursing Kusanagi, since she suspected he had contacted the TAC. 

She wanted their help. She just wasn't ready to deal with everything yet. However, the head of the TAC was standing in her door way and by the way he was pounding this was not a friendly social call.

"Damn it Momiji!!" Kunakida yelled. "I've been pounding for 10 minutes. I was worried that something happened to you."

"I'm fine." Was all that Momiji's tired mind could come up with to say. She continued to stare at Kunakida while her mind tried to kick into gear and figure out how she was going to let the TAC know what was going on with out telling them the things she was not ready to tell.

She was startled out of her thoughts with a gruff "well aren't you going to let me in?"

Blushing furiously at her rudeness, she opened the door wider and ushered her surrogate father in. To delay the upcoming conversation and to give herself something to do with the nervous energy building up inside of her, Momiji bustled around to make some morning tea as well as a light breakfast for the two of them. However, Kunakida was not an overly patient man and started to fire questions at her anyways.

"Momiji, did you know about the Arigami? Why didn't you contact us? How long have you been back from you vacation? Where was Kusanagi? Why doesn't he know what is going on?"

Momiji drowned out the rest of the questions by covering her ears a screeching "enough! Enough!! I will answer your questions one at a time; just let me get some food and tea in me!"

Kunakida lapsed into an impatient silence while he waited for Momiji to sit down and eat her food. He seemed about to burst when Momiji finally set down her chopsticks and quietly began her story. Momiji looked into the distanced and pensively swirled her tea as she tried to find the beginning of her story. Quietly she set down her cup and began to fiddle with the green stone in the center of her bracelet.

"I guess it started about two months ago. Kusanagi disappeared for some reason. I still don't know why though I suspect it was because he was tired of being around me." 

Momiji had to shush Kunakida as he tried to reassure her that Kusanagi would always love her.

"At first I was not concerned since he will often disappear for days at a time. However, after two weeks, I began to worry. That was when I decided to put in for a vacation and to travel around to his favorite thinking spots. After searching for two weeks I found myself in Tokyo, at the very place where Kadea first disappeared and later Susano-oh was reborn. It was there that I felt a strange energy. It felt like two energies trying to harmonize. Since I always have some of the science equipment from Mrs. Matsudaira I decided to take some readings. Well being underground with only artificial lights I did not notice that it got quite late. When I looked at my watch and noticed it was nearly midnight I decided to pack up. Before I had half my stuff packed, a blind light seemed to come from everywhere. Before my eyes could adjust I heard a sardonic male voice. '"I must thank you Kushinada for saving me the chore of tracking you down."' My blood turned to ice and as my vision cleared I found myself staring into the face of Murakumo."

This was too much for Kunakida. "What!? Murakumo? I thought he died when all of his mitamas cracked during his battle with Kusanagi and Susano-oh!"

"He did. This was not the same Murakumo I later found out. He was from a different dimension. One where my grandmother decided to never have children in the hopes that the Arigami would not awaken."

"Well it apparently didn't work if Murakumo is walking around." Kunakida broke in.

"No it did." Momiji corrected. "Murakumo was originally the protector of a Kushinada long past. Like Kusanagi he did not sleep when she sacrificed herself. Instead he embraced being an Arigami and proceeded to try to find a way to reawaken all the Arigami. He found a priestess that could wake one Arigami at a time, though it is a great strain on her. He also found a scientist that is able to manipulate the mitamas to give the Arigami whatever strengths or skills they want. However, Murakumo wanted to raise all the Arigami and for that he needed a Kushinada. He took me back to his dimension. I thought it was over for me with no Kusanagi to come flying in at the last moment to rescue me with cute smile and a rude comment. I have never felt so alone or so scared."

Momiji jumped as there was a loud crack from the tree outside. Apparently a dead branch had chosen that time to break off.

Momiji shook off the memory and continued her story. "I was held there for four weeks while they did the necessary preparations to raise the Arigami. It was while I was held there that I learned about the scientist and the priestess. The scientist was not that bad of a guy actually. He mainly worked for Murakumo because of the chance to explore new possibilities. He was actually the one that let it slip that the dimension machine would only work on a new moon. Anyways, it turns out that he had crafted two mitamas to be implanted into the future protector of the Kushinada. 

"So the other Arigami Kusanagi saw, is she your protector from the other dimension?" Kunakida asked.

Momiji was silent, thinking for a while before she responded. "Yes. Her name is Inda." Momiji has stumbled upon that name as the original name of the first Kushinada. "Yes, she is my protector. So if Kusanagi came back simplify because he felt compelled to protect me, he can go ahead and leave. I will be well protected. She helped me escape. When they brought me back that night they left me tied to a table in the same room as their dimension machine. It seemed like their lab of some sort. One Arigami was left in the room to guard me. She cut my bonds killed the Arigami and managed to hit the right button to send us here. I had not contacted anyone because in the process of finding the right button we hit a lot of wrong ones and the machine seemed about to blow when it finally returned me home. I had hoped that it was done with and that no one needed to worry. They must have sent the Arigami after me that same night and it just took a week for it to find me. I'm sorry I was wrong." Staring forlornly down at the table Momiji signed that that was the end of her story.

Kunakida stared reflectively into his cup of tea. "Alright then!!" He suddenly yelled out. "I will send Kome and Yaegashi to Tokyo to examine your abduction site. I will have my wife and Mrs. Matsudaira meet us here to look for remain of last nights Arigami. We will meet back here and have a debriefing at 2 P.M. today. Ask Inda to come or if she is at all like Kusanagi ask her for as much information she will give you and bring the information to the meeting." With that said Kunakida left to make all the necessary call.

Momiji, waved goodbye. Not noticing the scowling Kusanagi in the tree next to the kitchen window.


	6. Momiji's thoughts

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Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Seed or any of its characters.

AN: I will be putting in more interactions between Momiji and Kusanagi just for fun. If anyone has any ideas they would like to share I would love to try to fit them in. 

Chapter 6

Momiji's Thoughts

With a sigh, Momiji stepped back into her house and quietly slid the door shut. While leisurely walking to her office she thought over last night's and the morning events. Her life had definitely taken an interesting turn again.

Last night she had been unable to sleep and had decided to take a late night stroll through the woods. Momiji was not sure how long she had walked. She had been deep in thought over the happenings of the last two months when from her right she heard a guttural "Kushinada."

"Who's there?" She asked in a shaky voice, briefly entertaining the hope that it was just Kusanagi picking on her. That hope was quickly dashed when the grotesque form of the Arigami came into the moonlight. With a scream Momiji had fled deeper into the forest with more speed than she naturally had.

After running for quite awhile, Momiji felt that she had temporarily gotten away from the Arigami. 

"Wait a minute!" She Exclaimed. "I've got mitamas now. I can fight this thing by myself." 

Momiji focused on her mitamas, willing them to activate. Instantly her skin became a dark green and she felt the knowledge of how to use her new powers enter her mind. Momiji's new more sensitive hearing quickly led her back to the Arigami where she proceeded to attack it. She had been glad there was no one to see her clothing rip to shred when she formed blades along her body. She was also glad the Arigami had not recognized her, since she was not really comfortable with even an Arigami seeing her nude.

Then Kusanagi had appeared. Seeing that he was attacking the Arigami she had fled towards home, not wanting him to see her like she was, a nude Arigami. Since she spent too much time in front of her mirror he did end up seeing her nude, but, at least he did not seem to notice her mitamas. However, it seemed he had only come to learn more about the Arigami. He said so himself when he said he did not want to see her baby butt.

"Of all the nerve, I do not have a baby butt." Momiji muttered.

Then he went and notified the TAC. She had not been prepared for Kunakida's early morning visit. Considering she was not always the best at think on her feet, Momiji felt the conversation had gone pretty well. In fact it had gone better than she could have hoped for.

She was pleased with herself for figuring out how to hide her mitamas. Kunakida had not given her "bracelets" a second glance. And then when she had been fumbling about the mitamas for the next Kushinada protector, he had jumped to the conclusion that someone else had been implanted to protect her. Momiji felt a twinge of guilt for letting him believe the lie, but it was best for now.

Letting everyone else believe someone else was protecting her would also help with her Kusanagi problem. She loved him more than life itself. And yet, it hurt so much to think he was only around because he felt obligated to protect her. Momiji wanted him to want her. Not simply want her unharmed. If he believed someone else had taken up his burden, then maybe he could be free.

With a sigh, Momiji plunked down into her leather chair in front of her work desk. She shuffled papers around till the forms she wrote her monthly vitals surfaced among the clutter. Momiji was lucky that long ago Mrs. Matsudaira had deemed Momiji competent enough to take her own vitals and just bring them in to the lab once every three months. Trying to make realistic variations Momiji forged the readings on the two forms. If Mrs. Matsudaira had taken her true vitals she would probably have noticed a difference evoked by her two shiny, emerald green mitamas.

Usually Momiji would go to Tokyo once every three months to drop off the paper work and participant in any new experiments regarding the Kushinada pulse, among other things. One of those other things made her think about the big hole in her story. 

Kunakida had not really pressed her too hard for her story. She knew it was because he expected her to answer all the questions today at the meeting. It was too much to hope that they would not question her extensively about the month spent in the other dimension. She was going to have to become a superb storyteller in a matter of hours. Not the emotional babbler she knew she was. With that thought, Momiji stood up and decided to go for a walk outside to clear her head and try to think things through.


	7. The kiss

Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Seed or any of the characters.

Chapter 7

The Kiss

Kusanagi sat in a Maple tree out side Momiji's kitchen window. His emotions were boiling. Momiji had been threatened while he was on his little soul searching vacation. And to make matters worse she thought her had abandoned her because he no longer cared for her. He could only thank the gods that she had made it back in one piece. If something terrible had happened to her he could never forgive himself. Kusanagi hated to admit that he really owed Inda for saving Momiji.

At least now he knew why she had acted so strangely last night. It was always difficult for Kusanagi to express his gentler emotions. He always got a sickening knot in his stomach and the emotional surges made him feel like he was going to lose control of his mitamas. Regardless, Momiji needed to know that he had not left because he no longer cared to be with her. Kusanagi had left because he loved her so much he couldn't think straight. Every time Kusanagi had told himself he was going to set Momiji free and no longer see her he had given in to temptation and searched her out. The only reason he had managed to stay away for so long was that he kept telling himself he was trying to figure a way to be with her forever. 

As Kusanagi tried to come up with a way to tell Momiji the why of his leaving without letting on that that he had listened in on her talk with Kunakida, Momiji stepped outside. As Kusanagi stealthily follower her it became apparent that Momiji was just wandering aimlessly, lost in thought. Finally the right moment came.

A strong gust of wind blew the leaves around Momiji's and lifted her skirt just enough for him to see… 

"Ooo-whee, Kittens today. I would have thought after all these years you would have found something beside kiddy pants to wear."

With a screech, Momiji smoothed her skirt down and whirled around to glare menacingly at Kusanagi. "Kusanagi!! You pervert!! Don't you have something better to do then sulk around the woods trying to get a look at an innocent girl's underwear?!"

Kusanagi could barely hold in the chuckle that wanted to escape. Momiji's eyes never sparked brighter than when she was upset at Kusanagi for startling and embarrassing her. Kusanagi ached to kiss her, but, he needed to set things straight first. So instead he tempted the fire. "Your underwear is just one of the sights that go along with protecting you from the Arigami that keep fallowing you home." This got the expected result.

"Well you don't need to be looking at my underwear, and you especially don't need to protect me!!" Momiji exploded. "All you do is make fun of me and push me away. You say you want to be with me and yet as soon as thing start to heat up you push me away like I'm annoying you. Then you leave without a word only to come back because you have some misguided thought that you should protect me. Well you were not there when I needed help. Someone else was and she is willing to stay here with me so you can just go back to where ever you had gone to."

Kusanagi winced at the anger and hurt in Momiji's voice. Kusanagi took a deep breath and prepared to bare his soul to her rage.

"I didn't leave because I no longer wished to be with you! I left because I love you and I wish to always be with you." Kusanagi bellowed over Momiji's ranting.

Kusanagi was gratified that Momiji lapsed into a stunned silence. He had never told her that he loved her. However, she still held herself rigidly away from him so with another deep breath Kusanagi continued.

"I want to be a normal man worthy to marry you. I had come back to be with you and to ask Mrs. Matsudaira to examine me and try everything she could to rid me of theses Mitamas. It infuriates me that I wasn't there for you. I can't even begin to say the emotions and thoughts I had when I sensed that Arigami."

Kusanagi was cut off as Momiji flung herself at him and he found himself being kissed hungrily. Always in the past he had kept their kisses had been just bare pecks hello or goodbye which Momiji always accepted gratefully. Today she gave him no chance to pull back as she wrapped her whole being around him. Her kiss awoke every nerve in his body. Kusanagi's heartbeat pounded in his ears as the heat from Momiji's petite, lithe body penetrated his soul. Kusanagi allowed himself to be pulled farther into the kiss enjoying the sweet taste of Momiji's mouth. His hands roamed freely over her body, under her shirt, taking in the smooth texture. With regret he realized that if their embrace continued things were going to get indecent. Something he would not let happen until he was normal. It took every bit of self control for Kusanagi to pull away. His breathe was ragged and his body felt like it was on fire. He was on the verge of losing control of his mitamas and sprouting his blades and his armor. With a sigh Kusanagi slid his hands down Momiji's arms. While loosely cradling her wrists he softly stroked the stones at the top of her two bracelets. He watched her shudder once more as she tried to regain her composure. 

Kusanagi was suddenly assailed with uncertainty and claustrophobia. He had not planned for things to go this far, it was too much to soon. "I'm not even sure I will be able to become the man she needs." He thought darkly to himself. However, Momiji's response to his words and touch had sent his heart racing with joy. Though, Kusanagi needed to cool off now or his Arigami side was going to start poking out everywhere. 

"If we are going to be prepared for that 2 P.M. meeting, we better go and prepare. I should find Mrs. Matsudaira and show her where Inda and I fought that other Arigami." With that Kusanagi shot off. He looked back once to see Momiji slump to the ground with a stunned expression 


	8. Disguise

Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Seed or any of its characters

Chapter 8

The Disguise

"Mamoru" Momiji quietly whispered as she slumped to the forest floor.

Momiji felt like a puddle of goo. A very happy puddle of goo. If that was what happens when Kusanagi leaves for a couple of months, then Momiji wished he had done that years ago. Her body still burned from the passion of their kiss. Kusanagi had never shown so much passion before. And then, when he had unknowingly stroked her Mitamas she had had to shudder from the strangely pleasant sensation that rippled through her body. It was like he was stroking her very soul. She shuddered again, remembering the sensation.

He had said he wanted to marry her! New joy ripped through Momiji's being as she remembered his words. However, it was slightly dampened when she remembered that he had said he wanted to be normal before he married her. He hated his mitamas. 

Momiji had never understood why having mitamas seem so horrible to Kusanagi. True they had been forced upon him with the task of protecting the Kushinada, but, claimed that he liked protecting her. They certainly did not do anything bad for his looks. Sure he was not exactly normal looking. Yet, Momiji had on many an occasion seen stranger looking "normal" people. Best of all, his mitamas gave him great abilities. He was strong. He could fly. Kusanagi's ability to recover from injuries was absolutely amazing. He could sense Arigami when he focused and Momiji suspected he could sense her whereabouts as well as when she felt like she was in danger. Still, he hated them and seemed to feel like he was worthy of her because of them.

Kusanagi's hate for mitamas reaffirmed Momiji's decision to not tell him or anyone else about her mitamas. Momiji was sure she would find a way to remove her two mitamas just like she had her last one. Nevertheless, until that time Momiji planned to have a little fun. She had always wanted to fight alongside Kusanagi. Sadly, the majority of the time Kusanagi would leave her behind, insisting he was to protect her not her him. As Inda, she would be able to help Kusanagi protect "Momiji." It was going to be fun to see what he thought of someone with her personality, yet strong.

Momiji picked herself up and hurried into her house. Once inside she tried to sense Kusanagi's presence. True to his word he was at the site of the Arigami attack. Momiji then proceeded to see if she could use her mitamas to alter her facial features so that Kusanagi could not just look at her and know she was Momiji. To her disappointment she found that while she could change most everything about her face, she was not able to affect her eyes at all. Nonetheless, she should be able to change things enough that Kusanagi would not suspect it was her.

Momiji decided to make herself look like what she envisioned and elf looking like. She would keep the dark green skin that the mitamas produced naturally when evoked, her nose became more pointed as well as her ears, and finally she raised her cheek bones and gave them a bronze hue. Now she needed to look like she was wearing something. Since the mitamas only affected her skin, any clothing she was wearing tended to get torn if she had to form protruding blades or shields. Momiji had not been prepared for her past two fights. While fighting that last Arigami her clothing had been shredded by her own skin as she fought. Momiji had felt a bit exposed, still it was better than being dead or worse. She focused making her nipples smooth out and a ripple appear around the outside edges of her breasts so it appeared like she was wearing a flesh colored band of cloth. She then made a similar ripple of flesh around her waist and her upper thighs. With a blush she smoothed out the hairs and creases so now it looked like she was wearing spandex shorts. Then for the coloring, since "Inda's" skin was the same dark green as Kusanagi's hair, she decided to have her "clothing" match Kusanagi's favorite red trench coat. As a final touch Momiji had her long hair form cloak like down her back. She had to admit it was fun to change her appearance at will. Slowly she turned around to look herself over in the mirror, burning the image into her memory. For practice Momiji reverted to her neutral Arigami self and back to her Inda image till she was sure she could form it in the blink of and eye and hold it without much thought. Satisfied, Momiji released her hold on her mitamas and reverted back to her normal self, remembering to reform her bracelets.

After redressing, Momiji went down stairs to prepare for today's meeting. When Momiji had had her house built a year ago, she had known that she would still be involved with the TAC, so Momiji had had the house built with a conference room and a medium sized lab in the basement. She had previously used the lab for taking the various readings Mrs. Matsudaira wanted from her, but, the conference room has never been used. Momiji tried to perfect her story about what had happened while she tidied up her house, however, the memory of Kusanagi's kiss and his words kept disrupting her thoughts. And even though the rest of the morning and early afternoon went by uneventfully, she still did not feel prepared for the meeting when everyone began showing up.


	9. The TAC meets

Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Seed of any of its characters.

Chapter 9

The TAC Meets

Momiji was practically flying with nervous energy. She only had 15 minutes till everyone was due to show up or conference in with the video phone and she still did not feel ready deal with everything. Momiji nearly hit the ceiling (literally) when she heard the door bell. "I must have been activating my mitamas unconsciously" she mused as she ran towards the door. Hastily, Momiji looked herself over to make sure her bracelets where in place before she opened the door to reveal a smiling Matsudaira.

"Mrs. Matsudaira, you're the first one here." Momiji chirped brightly.

"I just came a little early to get your latest readings as well as to give you your depo provera shot while it is convenient." 

"Come on in" Momiji said while opening the door wider. "Oh, I already took the readings this morning. I will go get them for you."

With that said Momiji led Mrs. Matsudaira to the lab and then ran to her office to grab the forged lab sheets. Briefly Momiji looked them over before racing back to the lab with them. "Here you go" Momiji chirped, hoping that her slight unease did not show thru. She tried hard to not fidget while Mrs. Matsudaira looked over the data sheets for the past three months.

"Well, you seem to be running completely normal." Mrs. Matsudaira commented, making Momiji smile broadly. "I'm surprised all the stress from the past incidences has not changed some of your stats more." She mused. "Well give me your arm for your shot."

With a grimace Momiji pushed up her sleeve and offered her left arm to Mrs. Matsudaira for the shot.

"What are you injecting into Momiji!?" Kusanagi exclaimed from the doorway, making both Momiji and Mrs. Matsudaira jump in fright. "Well, what are you doing?"

"The same thing I inject her with every third month." Mrs. Matsudaira said matter of factly.

"Nothing you need to be concerned with," Momiji broke in. Mrs. Matsudaira looked at Momiji with an eyebrow raised in question.

Before Kusanagi could interrogate them, Momiji heard the doorbell. "Oh, Kusanagi would you please get that for me?"

With a glare and a quiet growl Kusanagi left to go open the door.

"Kusanagi do not know you are on birth control Momiji?" Mrs. Matsudaira questioned.

"Well… Kusanagi is barely comfortable with kissing me." This statement caused Momiji to flush with the memory of this morning's kiss. "How do you think he would take it if I said I was taking depo provera just in case he ever decided to get romantic with me? I don't want to pressure him and have him run from me."

Mrs. Matsudaira smiled a sly smile. "Well, I think a certain someone is thinking very strongly about getting intimate. So much he is finally letting me make a guinea pig out of him." Mrs. Matsudaira turned to put away her lab supplies. "That is a very good reason to keep taking your shots."

"Among other reasons," Momiji quietly whispered as she turned to greet whoever had just come in.

"Hello! Mr. and Mrs. Kunakida, I've missed you." Momiji chirped brightly while avoiding making eye contact with Kusanagi.

"Hello! What about me." A feminine voice demanded.

"Sakura! What are you doing here?" Momiji yelled in surprise.

"I heard a silly sacrifice girl once again got herself into trouble and I decided that it was the duty of a beautiful and extremely talented priestess, such as myself, to pull her scrawny ass out of the fire," preened Sakura.

"Well cherry blossom, I always enjoy watching you mess up" Kusanagi teased.

"At least I will be there when I'm needed" a pissed off Sakura shot back.

Momiji quickly jumped in before things got out of hand. "Well everyone is here now and we need to get this meeting started."

"So Inda will not be joining us?" Ryoko asked.

"I know everything Inda knows right now and she will learn everything you tell me." Momiji responded.

Everyone seemed to except Momiji's statement since Kusanagi had not been one for joining in the TAC's meetings when they first met him. Everyone settled down into their seats and dialed up Kome and Yaegashi on the video phone. Once everyone was ready Momiji went into a more detailed version of what had happened to her. Though she tried to leave out that she had been looking for Kusanagi since almost everyone knew that anyways and Momiji didn't want to drag her and Kusanagi's relationship out into the open.

Momiji took a breath and began her story. "Well, about six weeks ago I was actually in Tokyo. I had gone to the subway tunnels under Susano-o Park. When I reached to spot that Kadea had first disappeared from and later Susano-o manifested I felt a strange energy. It was like two energies trying to harmonize. Since I had some of Mrs. Matsudaira's equipment with me I decided to get readings."

"Those readings were quite interesting and I would like to get Sakura to look at them to see if she can tell us anything." Mrs. Matsudaira broke in.

"Anyways," Momiji continued. "While I was taking the readings it got very late. When I noticed this I started to pack everything up. However, before I could leave a bright light filled the cave and I got momentarily blinded. Before my eyes could clear, I was grabbed and heard Murakumo's voice say that he was glad I saved him the job of tracking me down."

"Murakumo's not dead!?" Kome burst in. "I thought Kusanagi and Susano-o destroyed him."

"In our dimension yes. But, this Murakumo is from an alternate dimension." Momiji calmly responded.

Everyone sat in stunned silence as the absorbed the idea of alternate dimensions. 

"Multiple dimensions? How did they do it?" Yaegashi broke in excitedly.

"I will get to that later." Momiji responded.

Pulling out the file on Murakumo, Ryoko asked "was that Murakumo exactly the same as the Murakumo from this dimension?"

Momiji pulled out a photo of Murakumo. "He acted the same as far as I could tell the only difference was his mitamas were green instead of blue."

"Interesting, does Inda have green mitamas as well." Mrs. Matsudaira queried.

"Yes she does." Momiji replied.

"I wonder how Inda's reading will compare to Kusanagi's." Mrs. Matsudaira mused.

"Kus boy is finally letting you examine him Matsu? Things must be heating up between you two huh Momiji?" Kome broke in with a sly grin.

Kusanagi growled and glade at the video phone.

"Actually, I do not think Inda will let you examine her anytime soon." Momiji nervously put forth. "Anyways, back to the story. Murakumo took me back to his dimension so he could resurrect the Arigami. It turns out that in the other dimension my grandmother decided to never have children for fear of losing them as sacrifices. Because of this the Arigami as a whole did not awaken. However, Murakumo was awake since he had been the protector of a previous Kushinada."

Momiji paused and waited for the noise to die down as everyone exclaimed in unison. Finally Kusanagi's voice won out. "There is no way in Hell he was a protector of a Kushinada."

"Well at least he was not a very good protector since his Kushinada died." Sakura chimed in.

"Well it actually makes sense." Yaegashi commented. "Murakumo was able to sense where Momiji was and only when he learned Kadea was betraying him did he attempt to harm either Kushinada."

Sakura looked thoughtful. "Plus Murakumo and Kusanagi are both names for the same sword, the sword supposedly retrieved from the original Orochi."

As everyone sat in stunned silence Momiji quietly began narrating her story again. "Murakumo was the only awake Arigami in his dimension till he found a priestess that was able to awaken one Arigami at a time. However, that was not enough so with the combined efforts of the priestess and his scientist they found a way to our dimension to bring me back. Their intent was to use me to awaken all the Arigami."

"How were they going to do that?" Ryoko queried.

"Um… You would have to ask them." Momiji stuttered a little nervously. "The scientist did talk to me a little about mitamas. Apparently, Murakumo let him experiment on some mitamas. He told me that he had crafted two mitamas to be embedded the new Kushinada's protector. Somehow he managed to amp them up where those two mitamas are about equal to seven. Murakumo did not want the protector to be stronger than him."

Kusanagi chose that moment to snort derisively.

Momiji just smiled and continued. "Well to make a tiresome story short I was in a bit of distress, thinking no one could help me. Somehow the two mitamas which were not currently embedded sensed my distress and activated on their own, choosing a host. I believe Murakumo has no idea who the host is and Inda wishes to keep it that way. Anyways she grabbed me and we got to their dimensional machine hit a bunch of random button and managed to get back here."

Everyone was poised to list a barrage of questions when Momiji's mom, Moe entered the room.

"Momiji, I thought we were going to have dinner tonight. Why is the TAC here? Does it have something to do with why you were gone?"

Momiji started to try to explain when she noticed her mom was no longer paying attention to her. Moe was looking intently at a picture of Murakumo that had slipped from his file. Moe picked it up and turned back to Momiji holding the picture for Momiji to see.

"Momiji, where did you get this picture of your father?" Moe asked quietly. 


	10. A mother's tale

Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Seed or any of its characters

Chapter 10

A Mother's Tale

The silence in the conference room was almost painful. As Kusanagi surveyed everyone's reactions to the stunning statement his mind kept echoing the disturbing thought. "Murakumo was Momiji's father." At last his eyes landed on Momiji and he jolted into action when he noticed her falling gracelessly towards the floor.

"She's so pale." He thought to himself with great concern. 

Kusanagi was relieved when Momiji quickly came to. However, the fact that she seemed to be clinging to him for life and was shaking like a leaf worried him.

Moe was looking at Momiji with great concern and confusion. To Kusanagi it was evident by Moe's dismayed expression that she did not know who or better yet what Murakumo really was. 

"Momiji," began Moe. Concern was evident in her voice. "Are you O.K.? Why did you have a picture of Murakumo if you did not know he was your father?" Moe asked hesitantly. 

"Mrs. Fujimiya, would you be so kind as to tell us what you know about Murakumo?" Mr. Kunakida broke in. 

"I think it would be better if I told Momiji first and let her decide what to tell you." Moe responded.

"We are like family to Momiji and she does not keep anything from us!" Kome exclaimed righteously.

Kusanagi noticed that Momiji, while still shivering, tensed noticeably at Kome's exclamation. "I wonder what she is trying to hide this time." He silently mused before refocusing on Moe.

"Go ahead mom." Momiji whispered while pushing softly against Kusanagi's shoulder to let him know that she was ready to stand on her own. Once Kusanagi had set her down, Momiji pulled a chair over for her mom to sit in and quickly retreated to her own seat.

With a reluctant sigh Moe sat in the chair still fingering the picture of Murakumo. "It all started about 20 years ago. I was 17 and wild. You all may have noticed that I have gone out of my way to keep Momiji innocent. I did it I hopes that she would not fallow the same path that I did."

Kusanagi could not contain the snicker that wanted to break forth. "Heck she still wears kiddies' pants." He said with a chuckle.

"Kusanagi!! That is my **MOTHER you are saying that to." Momiji ground out. To her satisfaction Kusanagi actually blushed.**

"Ahem." Moe coughed. "I was wild and looking for excitement. One of the places I found excitement was with a small group of environmentalist that liked to vandalize construction sites. I'm ashamed to say that I did it more for the excitement of sneaking around in the night with friends and hiding from the police than to protect the environment. Anyways, one night the police had been tipped off and were waiting for us. As soon as the police jumped out to capture us we all scattered in different directions. I ran for all that I was worth with a police man right on my heals. I was not fast enough and he quickly caught me and slammed me against a tree. I can still remember the jarring pain. The police officer had looked very pissed and brought up his baton like he intended to hit me with it. However, he never got a chance to. That was the first time I saw him. There stood Murakumo with the police officer in a vice like grip looking like a very sexy dark knight. With very little effort he tossed the officer aside, knocking him unconscious. He introduced himself to me as Murakumo and said that he had been admiring me for quite some time. Over the next few weeks it seemed like he was always there, lavishing attention on me. It was hard to not be seduced by his intense stare and his distinct good looks. I knew he was not normal and I liked it. He never offered to tell me about himself and I liked being able to make it up. One night I snuck out to meet him for a midnight walk on a new moon we ended up in the owatto. He had prepared a blanket surrounded by candles and chimes. It was there that we made love for the first and last time. 

"Ugh gross." Kome broke in.

Moe did not even look up. She just continued her story in a sad voice. "After that night I never saw him again. It turns out that I got pregnant from that one night. When I learned it was to be twins, my mom told me about being a Kushinada for the first time. Somehow she suspected that the twins' birth would awaken the Arigami. I wanted to deny it and raise my daughters without the Kushinada's fate always hanging over their head. After they were born my mother urged me to let one of my daughters be adopted by a family that took care of a Shinto shrine. They were to raise her with the knowledge of her possibly fate and if the time came sacrifice her. This way I could at least save one of my daughters. It was a hard decision, but, I made it. I gave up Kadea because her midnight locks reminded me of her father." A sad smile of remembrance crossed Moe's face. "She even had her father's personality." With another sigh Moe continued. "She was barely a week old when I left her at the shrine. However, later that same day I received a call asking if I had taken her back."

"The government had known about the deal and decided it wanted to know what her power was so the TAC was formed and Kadea was brought to us." Kunakida provided with shame evident in his voice.

"I think Mother knew. I was actually relieved that you had taken her for when we arrived at the shrine we found that the two of them had been brutally killed by some wild animal."

"Who were they? Did they have a son?" Kusanagi broke in. Urgency laced his voice. He could barely remember the mangled bodies of his parents from when he looked upon them after Orochi had embedded the mitamas into him. He did not, however, know their names of if he might have any live family left. "Not that they would want a freak for a nephew." He thought derisively.

"I don't really know. I could take you to the abandoned shrine if you wanted." Moe responded a little uncertainly. "But, that is all I have to tell. I raised Momiji as if none of it had ever happened. That is until you all came into her life. She never even pressed to hard as to who her father was. Momiji just accepted that he was gone."

"Thank you for sharing. If it is alright with you Momiji you can go out to dinner with your mom and we will go over the data we retrieved. Tomorrow morning at 9 am we will meet again.

With that said the group broke up. Before, Kusanagi could escape though, Matsudaira approached him. "With this new information on Murakumo I believe it would be beneficial if you let me begin examining you now Kusanagi."

With a groan Kusanagi remembered that he had told Mrs. Matsudaira she could examining him in hope of finding a way to rid himself of the mitamas that curse him. "Fine!" He humphed and fallowed her docilely to the lab.


	11. Testing

Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Seed or any of its characters.

Chapter 11

Testing

It had been a six days since Momiji's mom had dropped the bomb about who her father was. Every time Momiji thought about it she felt like she was going to hurl. "That other Murakumo is not my father." Momiji repetitively told herself. "As long I am never captured by him again I won't have to think about it." She consoled herself. "As far as anyone is concerned nothing really happened in that other dimension." Momiji once again told herself with a shudder.

Trying to get her mind off the disturbing subject, Momiji thought over the past few days while she folded laundry in her room. The past few days, life had seemed to return to normal. At first everyone had been overly excited by all the new information. But now the TAC had returned to Tokyo, the only difference was now Mrs. Matsudaira was scheduled to return to Izumo once a week. Momiji was not sure how she was going to avoid Matsudaira's scrutiny. Hopefully Mrs. Matsudaira would continue to accept Momiji's pre-done readings. 

Then there was the Kusanagi problem. Momiji had hoped that his passionate kiss was a sign that their relationship was finally going to move to a deeper level. "If anything, he is more distant." She sulked. For the past six days Kusanagi had barely said "Hi" to her and Momiji was beyond feeling hurt. "Maybe he is reconsidering being with me because I'm Murakumo's daughter." That thought brought another shudder. Quickly she tried to discard the idea. The thought of him not liking her anymore because Murakumo was her father also supported the idea that Kusanagi would like her less if he knew she now had mitamas. Momiji looked down at her mitamas which were still disguised as bracelets and bit her lip.

"I wonder where he is now." Momiji thought. A few years back with Sakura's aid Momiji had secretly learned how to sense if Kusanagi was close, though she still needed to concentrate real hard and could only tell if he was in a 20 mile radius. Momiji closed her eyes and concentrated blocking out everything till she could just barely feel Kusanagi's aura at the limit of her range to her left. "He is not even watching over me like he normally does." Momiji pouted. 

Then an idea hit her. "He always was able to sneak up on me and observe me. Maybe I should practice using my mitamas and spy on him." They more Momiji thought about it the better the idea got. "I should practice using my mitamas so I will be more practiced for the next attack. And, I want to know what he has been doing when he is not around me." 

Completely convince with her genius, Momiji stripped off her clothing and focused on her Mitamas to transform into the Arigami form she had practiced earlier. Momiji twirled around in front of her mirror admiring her creativity. "If only I could change my eyes too" she thought with a bit of regret. "Then I could look completely exotic. With a gleeful smile Momiji leaped out her window and went in search of Kusanagi.

One thing Momiji noticed while traveling through a more wooded area of Izumo was that all of her sense seemed to be heightened. Momiji really had not taken time to explore her mitamas except in ways to hide there existence on her person. It was strange, but, when she activated them she suddenly knew how to fight and had the agility and strength to do whatever she tried. "It is like I can think through my mitamas when I have to fight. I wonder if it is the Arigami soul lending me the knowledge I am asking for."

Steadily, Momiji started being able to detect Kusanagi's sent more and more. "God I love his smell" Momiji thought dreamily. "He smells like the darkest part of the forest with a bit of spice." Momiji snapped herself back to reality when she realized she was getting close and decided to proceed more cautiously. "Time to practice stealth" she thought with a smirk, enjoying her game.

As quietly as she could Momiji went from branch to branch till she could get a clear view of Kusanagi. Momiji was amazed at how quiet she could be. "If it was not for the fact that I am doing this, I would never have known I was here." 

Kusanagi was standing on top of a large broken rock looking down into one of the many shallow valleys in Izumo. Momiji sat in her perch searching Kusanagi with her eyes for a reason for his distant behavior. Momiji stayed in her position for nearly an hour just watching the unmoving Kusanagi. The phrase "What is he thinking?" kept wandering through her head over and over. 

Then without any warning Kusanagi shot up into the air. "Damn" Momiji swore while moving so she could see the sky clearly. "I had hoped he would walk like a normal person not fly away al of a sudden." Momiji scanned the sky to no avail. "I will just have to try to sense him" she muttered. 

Momiji cleared her mind and shut her eyes trying to sense where Kusanagi had gone to. Slowly she began to fell his presence. As she focused more, she realized he was still quite close in fact he was right behind her!!

Momiji whirled around searching desperately for where Kusanagi was hiding. A light breeze brought his sent to her nose from her right and Momiji quickly turned to search that area. Before she could take a second step Kusanagi stepped calmly out onto the branch in front of her. His eyes held an intense stare and his arm blade where drawn.

"Hello Inda." He drawled. "Enjoying the view?" He asked with challenge in his voice while raising his right eyebrows.

Momiji felt like a deer caught in headlights. Only when Momiji had first met Kusanagi had he seemed menacing. And even then he seemed restrained. Kusanagi had no idea that she was his princess who he would tolerate anything from. Momiji had not been sure what Kusanagi's thoughts on Inda where, but, one thing for sure was he was not acting friendly. However, the other reason Momiji felt glued to her spot was how incredibly sexy he seemed right then as well.

The spell was broken when Kusanagi took a step towards her. Suddenly Momiji's fight or flight instinct kicked in and she ran like crazy chanting "bad idea, bad idea, bad idea" in her head. Instinctively she ran towards home. However, before she was even a quarter of the way there, Kusanagi was in front of her again. Momiji instantly veered off to her left chanting "really bad idea, really stupid idea, really idiotic idea" in her head. After a few more minutes of running, Momiji began to slow. She stained every fiber in her being trying to hear, smell or sense Kusanagi. She could have just waited for after just a few breaths Kusanagi was there in front of her again.

"Where is Momiji?" He demanded. "I can't sense her anywhere."

Momiji's eyes widened just a fraction at Kusanagi's admission. She had always suspected that Kusanagi could sense her. What surprised her was that he could not sense her right now. Kusanagi just stood perfectly still in front of her, his arm blade still extended and that intense look on his face. Momiji could tell he was primed to jump into battle at any moment and frantically searched her mind for a way to satisfy Kusanagi without exposing herself (in more ways than one J). Luckily inspiration hit her. "Momiji must be testing our way to hide her. If you cannot sense her than Murakumo will not be able to sense her." Momiji mentally crossed her fingers hoping that Kusanagi would accept it. When he was silent for a few more minutes Momiji hesitatingly offered "why don't you try Akiko's house." Then hopefully while he searched there it would give her enough time to get home and change back.

Without warning Kusanagi's arm shot out and snagged Momiji's in a vice like grip. "You, Inda are coming with me to find out."

Momiji's body reacted instinctually to what felt like a threat and spikes sprouted from her skin piercing Kusanagi's hand.

"Shit!" Kusanagi cursed. 

Momiji took off instantly leaping from branch to branch. This time she tried weaving around the forest hoping to shake her pursuit. Just as she was considering slowing Momiji was knocked hard into a tree and found herself pinned there by Kusanagi's body. Luckily for Kusanagi Momiji was able to control the reflex to shoot out spikes to make him release her. 

Momiji looked at Kusanagi's face and let out a little gasp. He face looked completely fierce and his body seemed to almost shudder with barely suppressed energy. He was completely focused on her and Momiji found it almost exciting if it wasn't for the fact that she was the tiniest bit afraid. However, while he continued to keep her pinned to the tree saying nothing but more importantly doing nothing, her fear eased and her libido increased. Momiji knew he was waiting for her to submit and led him to wear Momiji was hiding. Luckily the adrenaline in her system allowed inspiration to hit once again.

Momiji suddenly leaned forward and kissed Kusanagi. She held the kiss for a few seconds her heart pounding in her ears before Kusanagi jerked his head back. "If you cannot sense her, how should I. You will sense her when she is ready to be found." That said, Momiji ducked under the now stunned Kusanagi's arm and started racing towards home.

Halfway to her house Momiji slowed and tried to sense Kusanagi. This time she was pleased to note he was not close by. Instead he seemed to have stayed where she had left him. Satisfied Momiji completed the trip to her house and slipped back in through her window. With a sigh Momiji released her mitamas and returned to her normal nude state. Quickly she reformed her bracelets and got dressed before she would let herself relax.

While Momiji was more relaxed than when she had been trying to elude Kusanagi, her body still thrummed with adrenaline. As her fear quickly drained away Momiji began to think about how exciting it was to have Kusanagi chase her. Then it hit her. "I've always chased after Kusanagi while he pushed me away. I wonder how I could get him to chase me with the same passion he chased Inda with?" Momiji pondered for a little while longer. "I need help and I know just the person to ask."

Still pumped up with adrenaline Momiji pounded Sakura's number into her phone. While the phone was ringing Momiji continued to think and decided to hit the three way call button on her phone and dial Akiko's number as well.

"Hello" Sakura's sultry voice answered.

"Hey Sakura this is Momiji. I need to ask a favor. Hold on for me to get Akiko on the phone as well." Momiji said in a rush.

After another ring Akiko picked up. "Hello?"

"Hey Akiko" Momiji chirped.

"So why are you bothering us?" Sakura snapped.

Momiji took a breath before hurriedly speaking into the phone. "I'm always chasing after Kusanagi and he is always pushing me away. I need to find a way to make him chase me. Who better to help me than you Sakura."

"Well I do know how to get a man" Sakura preened.

"And, I need you Akiko to help make sure I do not go over board and seem obvious." Momiji continued with the same breath.

"I would love to help you and Kusanagi finally get serious!" Akiko beamed.

"Then will you two help me?" Momiji pleaded hopefully.

"It is going to be a lot of work for me" Sakura drawled. "You are going to need more than new cloths. You will have to learn to be a little more daring."

"Anything!" Momiji promised. "Let's go to Tokyo tomorrow."

"O.K." Both Sakura and Akiko chimed in.

"This is going to be so much fun!" Akiko giggled into the phone.

"I will pick you two up tomorrow then around 10 am. I will see you then." With that Momiji hung up. She could barely contain her excitement. Today had been exciting and tomorrow would set her on the way to finally secure Kusanagi into her life.


	12. Girl's day out

Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Seed or any of its characters.

AN: I apologize for how long it has taken me to write this. You can blame my husband. First, for bringing home a lovely virus to share with his family. And second, for surprising me with 52 episodes of Inuyasha. That, and the fact that my computer keeps crashing and I have the bad habit of not saving often.

Chapter 12 

Girl's day out

Momiji was having serious second thought while she drove to pick up Akiko and Sakura. "What has gotten into me" Momiji repetitively questioned herself. Not only was she not trusting her friends with what really happened when Murakumo had kidnapped her, but, she was now preparing to seduce Kusanagi. Momiji briefly wondered if Kaede would have handled the situation differently before firmly pushing that insecurity away. "Sheesh! I can't start thinking like that again. I have enough problems as is." 

Thankfully, Momiji arrived at Akiko's house and was able to stop reflecting on her current behave briefly. "Momiji this is going to be so much fun!" Akiko gushed. "I can believe you have finally gotten serious. What are the plans for today?"

During the drive to Tokyo to pick up Sakura and then go shopping Momiji tried to let herself get wrapped up in the excitement of an impending makeover. At the beginning of the drive Momiji had made it clear to Akiko that she did not want to truly plan out the day until they had picked up Akiko so instead they spent the drive letting Momiji rant a bit about why she needed to do this. "I've known him since I was 15. I have considered us a couple since I was 16. Right after I was brought back by Susannah-o Kusanagi seemed so open and close to me. However, soon after he started to pull away more and moreover the next 2 years. Till it would be weeks between the times I would see him and when I did he would seem distant."

Akiko having heard all this before simply nodded sympathetically. 

"Then there was the incident in America. Which is where we met Valencia, who had been implanted with a synthetic mitama. I was terrified that Kusanagi wanted to be with her since she was a bit younger and prettier as well as having a mitama like him."

"Are you afraid that this new Inda arigami is going to take Kusanagi away from you?" questioned Akiko quietly.

Momiji barely stopped to giggle of mirth as she pondered the absurdity of her stealing Kusanagi away from herself. After a pause to make sure her voice sounded serious Momiji responded. "I'm not worried about Inda taking him away from me." After a few more minutes trying to assure Akiko that Inda was not trying to steal Kusanagi away, Momiji continued with her narration about her Kusanagi woes. "What actually has me concerned is something Valencia said to me. Valencia said that she did not want to fall in love because she was afraid of losing control of her arigami powers and hurting someone. I still wonder if that is why Kusanagi keeps distancing himself from me. However, when he rescued me from Valencia's father, Kusanagi had claimed to want to b with me. And for awhile after things had really seemed to progress between us." Momiji paused for a bit reminiscing how Kusanagi had started to come out of his shell for a bit. Becoming the forever teasing charmer he could be. "However, it was too good to be true and he started to withdraw again. Since he was never comfortable out in public in the city I thought it would be a good idea to move back to Izumo."

"Which I'm eternally grateful for" chimed in Akiko.

Momiji could not help but smile at Akiko. "Sadly, it did not work. Kusanagi still became more distant. Then a couple of weeks ago he kissed me with more passion than he had shown during our whole relationship." Momiji lightly touched her lips remember that moment. She looked up at Akiko's smiling face. "Then everything returned back to cold and distant again. I'm tired of always being the one to chase him. I need him to try to romance me or I am always going to be afraid that he only is sticking around because he feels an obligation to protect me."

"Now you know that is not true Momiji. Everyone can tell that he really loves you. The silly boy just keeps putting up walls thinking he is not good enough for you. Don't you worry though. Sakura and I will help you overload his senses so he will come chasing after you without even knowing what he is doing." With that said Momiji and Akiko settled into a comfortable silence until they reached Sakura's apartment.

Both Akiko and Momiji were surprised to find Sakura already ready to go when they arrived at her apartment. "First thing, let's go get some tea and snacks and talk war strategies." Sakura gleefully announce as she leapt into the car. Within minutes they where ordering tea and little cakes at a tea shop. "Let's get down to business."

"Now, you realize Momiji that while you say you want Kusanagi to chase after you, that you are still doing things to catch his attention." Akiko inquired while she looked intently at Momiji over her cup of tea.

"I realize that. However, Kusanagi will not, and I need him to openly allow himself to want me and be with me."

"Well if that is the case." Sakura blurted with a wide grin. "Then all we need to do is get him drunk and leave him alone with you dressed in a very sexy negligee and let the suppressed hormone take the reins."

Momiji allowed herself to play the scenario over in her head. First she thought of the situation in an overly romantic way with Kusanagi professing his undying love and making sensual love with the aid of chilled wine which he would gently like of her quivering body. Then she thought about how it most likely would happen if they got him drunk. Even more crude jokes from Kusanagi, bad breath, the possibility of him falling asleep before they could even have sex and worse yet not remembering anything the morning after and reverting back to his old ways. Momiji allowed herself one giggle at the thought of a klutzy drunk Kusanagi before firmly pushing the idea away. When she looked up she saw both of her friends smirking at her and knew that once again all of her thoughts had obviously played across her face.

While nibbling on a cake Akiko started talking. "Well since just getting him drunk is out of the question I guess we should talk strategy."

Sakura looked at Momiji calculatingly, "as well as deals. If we are going to help you, you have to agree to do what ever we tell you and wear what ever we pick out no matter what."

*Do I have the guts to do this* Momiji wondered to herself. Momiji looked up at her two friends for a second before her eyes slide to Sakura's attire. While it was fairly modest for Sakura, her tight dress looked painted on and Momiji could not help but blush at the thought of wearing similar clothing. "Just remember, I don't want Kusanagi to realize that I'm changing things for him. We need to make all the changes seem normal so no drastic changes."

Akiko and Sakura nodded their ascents, though Momiji could tell by the gleam in both of their eyes that they planned to push it to the limits. Finishing their snacks they moved their trio to a local salon Sakura recommended that specialized in facials and hair treatments. Their conversation continued while their hair and faces where treated to bring out more of their natural beauty. 

Laying back in a chair with pink paste on her face, cucumber slices on her eyes, and green goo being worked into her hair, Akiko began talking. "I guess if we can't dress you up like a sex fiend, we are going to have to come up with a strategy. Probably the easiest on would be to play hard to get. Act not interested anymore or even better yet like you are interested in someone else."

Before Momiji could even respond Sakura cut in. "No, that won't work. If Kusanagi thought Momiji had interest in someone one else he would try to convince himself she would be better off and might leave completely. What might work is if we have someone play devils advocate, meaning have someone who is completely opposite Momiji act like they are trying to seduce Kusanagi and rip on Momiji at the same time. Most guys well rise to the challenge of defending the one they love from the slander of the seducer as well as run head long into their love's arms to prove that the devil's advocate had no affect on them."

"Yeah but, who would do it and what if she actually did mess things up" Akiko asked.

Sakura and Akiko continued to converse about the strategy Momiji should use. However, Momiji had completely tuned them out while she considered the possibility of being her own devil's advocate. Inda could try to seduce Kusanagi. Then if Kusanagi did fall for Inda, he would just be falling for her without knowing it. And no one could object in the end about Momiji bad mouthing herself. After a thinking on the idea for a bit more, Momiji tuned back into her friends conversation. 

"I don't know," fussed Akiko, while a lady filed her nails. "It won't come naturally for Momiji."

"If it came naturally, she would not need our help!" Sakura snapped back, jerking her hand and almost ruining her nail polish.

"Um… What are you two talking about?" Momiji got even more anxious when she noticed the twin chestier grins directed at her. "Um… Guys…? What are you planning?" Momiji fidgeted furiously, knowing her friends were enjoying her discomfort. Suddenly Momiji's phone broke the silence causing all three to jump. Momiji madly dug into her purse, searching for the offending object. Finally, she succeeded and hurriedly answered her cell. "Hello. This is Momiji." She spoke breathlessly.

"Momiji? This is Mrs. Matsudaira. I'm at your house. Where are you?"

Momiji instantly hit the mute button and let loose a short stream of un-Momiji like curses to the wide eyed amusement of her two friends. Releasing the button, Momiji began to apologize profusely to Mrs. Matsudaira. "I'm sooo sorry. I don't know how I could have forgotten. I'm actually in Tokyo now. Could I just go to you lab here and leave the readings on your desk. I will make it up to you somehow."

Mrs. Matsudaira chuckled. "Same old Momiji. It is O.K. I have other business to attend to here anyways. Just leave it on my desk."

After a few more apologies Momiji hung up her phone and tossed it back into her purse. "Well, we need to make a quick stop at the TAC." A short cab ride later Momiji madly dashed into the TAC lab and began frantically searching for the appropriate forms. With a small yell of success she grabbed a sheet of paper and began to quickly scribble numbers on it.

"Momiji?" Questioned Sakura. "Aren't you supposed to take the readings before writing them down on the form?"

Momiji froze, realizing her mistake in her haste. "I… I was just trying to hurry things up so you two can continue whatever you two where planning to embarrass me. The stuff does not change much anyways." Akiko looked slightly disapproving, but, neither friend said anything more.

The first store the threesome visited was a lingerie store. "Now, while the bulk of your make over is going to be attitude, we are also going to rework your looks from the bottom up."

"Literally." Sakura smirked at Momiji's indignant cry when she spotted the blood red, silk thong Sakura was holding up. "You have a good thing going with you habit of accidentally exposing yourself. We plan to capitalize on that."

Before Momiji could bolt for the door, Akiko grabbed her arm and sent a playful glare at Sakura. "Don't worry. While that," Akiko nodded towards the thong Sakura was still displaying, "is our ultimate goal, we will start small and work up to it." 

"Luckily since it was learned that the Kushinada liked to wear silly animals on her butt, a number of designers decided to create more adult versions." Sakura held up a pair of pale pink, silk panties with a rather seductive cat on it. While it was more Momiji's style, Momiji could not help but be embarrassed by the thought of others knowing about her preference and designing underwear along those lines.

Momiji felt like crawling under a rock and dieing. However, once set loose her friends were not about to be deterred. "Now let's talk about strategy." Akiko started.

"There will be no more running up to Kusanagi for a hug or clinging on to his arm or hand." Sakura sternly stated.

"But, I thought playing hard to get was out." Momiji was a bit wide eyed looking at the rather large quantities of panties and bras Sakura and Akiko were adding to Momiji's pile.

"You won't be playing hard to get," corrected Akiko. "In fact you will be making sure Kusanagi only leaves on your terms."

"The name of the game is that whenever you sense Kusanagi if about to spirit off, you need to find a reason to need him to stay." Sakura was grinning from ear to ear. "Kusanagi seems to be one of those guys who need to be needed. If he is going to leave you need to come up with a reason for him to stay until you say goodbye. I don't care if you have to fake a sprained ankle."

"What if I cannot think of a reason?" Whined Momiji. She looked up to notice that her friends where now choosing some rather sexy pajamas.

Sakura huffed like Momiji was the dumbest female ever. "If you cannot keep him there, you make sure you are the one to leave." 

The trio moved on to another clothing store, looking for cloths that were not far from Momiji's normal style. Just a bit more daring. Once again Sakura began her lecture. "Now since you are giving up touching Kusanagi with hugs and hand holding you are going to need to make it up in different ways. Whenever you talk to him you will accent what you say by lightly touching him. When you release your touch you will not just pull your hand back, instead you will drop your hand letting your fingers lightly caress him while they drop down."

Momiji felt like dieing. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yes" Sakura snapped. "And if you are sitting touch his legs as well, letting your touch drift upwards or towards his inner thigh."

There was no question about. Momiji was in hell. She looked up as Akiko and Sakura briefly discussed whether they should introduce the slightly see through clothing on week 2 or week 3. To her dismay Sakura returned her attention to Momiji. "We also need to talk about sex. You don't look like a girl who would know much in that regards. Let's talk erogenous zones."

What had she gotten herself into?!


	13. Bad day

Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Seed or any of its characters.

AN: I apologize for how long it has taken me to write this. You can blame my husband. First, for bringing home a lovely virus to share with his family. And second, for surprising me with 52 episodes of Inuyasha. That, and the fact that my computer keeps crashing and I have the bad habit of not saving often.

Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Seed or any of its characters.

AN: Would anyone like to beta read for me. My Husband said he would but he has yet to put aside the time so I just keep putting up rough chapters.

Chapter 13

Bad Day

  
Kusanagi was having a **very bad day. "Things just keep getting better and better," he grumbled quietly while he glared with unconcealed menace at the lab equipment Mrs. Matsudaira was setting out. While it had been Kusanagi's choice to finally allow the scientist to examine him, Kusanagi was not at ease with the complete zeal Mrs. Matsudaira exuded at the prospect.  
  
Mrs. Matsudaira gently tapped his shoulder, breaking him out of his sulk. "Today I'm just going to take some readings and a couple of sample so I will have some base data to work with."   
  
Kusanagi just nodded mutely trying o be polite when what he really wanted to do was scream, "get the hell away from me. I'm not your freaking guinea pig!!" However, he squelched the urge since he felt that allowing himself to become the TAC's guinea pig, no matter how he detested the idea, was his only hope to become normal for Momiji. Kusanagi noticed that the room had gone silent. He looked up at Mrs. Matsudaira wondering why she had stopped making noise. Kusanagi's eyes met ones that seemed to show concern.**

"You do not need to do this if you do not want to." Mrs. Matsudaira reached for Kusanagi's arm as if she was going to pat it in a motherly fashion. 

However, before she could make contact Kusanagi flinched away. "I have to do this so I can find a way to be rid of this curse and be normal for Momiji." Spat Kusanagi while jabbing his thumb at the mitamas in his chest.

"Momiji does not seem to mind." 

Kusanagi just snorted. Glaring at the various items on the table next to the computer, Kusanagi barked, "well are you going to start poking and prodding or not! I want to get this over with." 

With a soft sigh, Mrs. Matsudaira began taking her readings with recognizable such as a blood pressure cuff and some unrecognizable. Kusanagi tuned her out completely and thought on Mrs. Matsudaira's last statement. *She probably would mind if she ever really thought about it. She never had any qualms about killing an Arigami. Because they were not human. They were the enemy. Heh. What am I?* Kusanagi shifted a bit uncomfortably and sent Mrs. Matsudaira a black look as she scanned the mitamas on his chest with a handheld device before returning to his dark thoughts. *I wonder if she even realizes that I have killed humans as well while protecting both her and her sister? If I told her, maybe she would recognize me for the monster I am and hate me.* Kusanagi shook his head slightly at the thought of Momiji hating anything. He reminded himself that even though Momiji helped to kill the Arigami she never seemed to hate them and was always willing to give even the Arigami and its human allies a second chance. 

That was one of the reasons he loved her so desperately. He had tried to kill Momiji, and yet that same day se was willing to sacrifice herself to protect him. Kusanagi barely contained a snort at the sappiness of his thoughts. Truthfully it was not because she had protected him that made him want to protect her. He had been fighting both his mitamas and his conscience when he had tried to kill Momiji. No, her protecting him had made him feel a kinship with her. Momiji was willing to protect someone who had caused her grief. Just like he had always been willing to protect the Kushinadas even though his parents had been slaughtered and his body altered because of their existence.

No matter what, when he would protect the Kushinada, Kusanagi felt right with the world and he felt a bit of guilt from that. How could he say he truly cared for Momiji when secretly he wanted for there to be danger so he could save her from it? Nothing turned him on more than Momiji clinging desperately him when he rescued her. Her cheeks flushed from adrenalin. It had been that way ever since that first time he had asked her to hold on tight when he had been trying to rescue her from Orochi. Kusanagi's guilt over the satisfaction he got from rescuing Momiji had been part of the reason he had not immediately jumped to rescue her in America.

Of course there were many other ways she turned him on. Like how her cheeks would flush when he embarrassed her, or the way she would fuss over him when he was injured. Kusanagi immediately put a stop to his current train of thought remembering that he was currently under Mrs. Matsudaira's scrutiny. *Just what I need. For her to think becoming her guinea pig turns me on.* Thought Kusanagi with wry disgust.

"Ah hem."

Kusanagi looked up to see Mrs. Matsudaira looking intently at him and for a brief moment he feared his thoughts had somehow been apparent after all and that she was going to ask him. Then he noticed what was in her hands and almost wished that was the case.

"The last two things I need are a blood ample and a urine sample." Mrs. Matsudaira spoke in a calming voice. However it was ruined by the urine cup in one hand and the too big for Kusanagi's liking hypodermic needle in the other.

Kusanagi briefly considered which option he detested the least. Finally he decided to let himself be impaled by Mrs. Matsudaira's needle first, so that he could leave immediately after giving her a urine sample. Raising his eyebrow in a seductive, yet menacing way he sneered, "Well, I always knew you wanted something from me. Go ahead and take the blood first." Glaring at the needle he continued in a quieter mutter, "You damn vampire."

Mrs. Matsudaira just smiled ever so slightly while she prepared the surly half arigami's arm. Kusanagi refused to look away when she entered the needle into his arm and began to draw out his blood. Both of them gasped when the first couple of CCs came out red. However as his blood continued to be drawn out it became the green Kusanagi was used to seeing come from his wounds. "Fascinating!" Mrs. Matsudaira exclaimed. To Kusanagi's dismay she proceeded to stick him four more times until she succeeded in getting a sample with just the red blood in it from his other arm, as well as a sample of just the green blood. "I never expected this! Kusanagi, what color do you blush?" Mrs. Matsudaira was obviously securitizing Kusanagi's coloring.

Kusanagi had never liked his looks being scrutinized. "**Why the hell do you think I blush?!" Either his anger at the question or his discomfort with being scrutinized had made him flush since Mrs. Matsudaira nodded and began frantically scribbling in her notes. "If you don't mind I will give you your finale sample and you can go and torment Momiji!" However, before he could snatch the sample cup and leave, his day was made worse.**

"Oh. You did not know either that Momiji was going to be in Tokyo today? I would have expected you to at least know." Mrs. Matsudaira pondered with her hand on her chin. "Well I guess it makes sense since if she had told you, you could have reminded her about today. Oh well. I would like our next visit to be in Tokyo anyways so you two could just come together."

Kusanagi just glared at Mrs. Matsudaira before storming off to the bathroom. With great disgust he left the asked for sample on the bathroom sink and stormed out of the lab seeking the comfort of the trees outside. Once comfortably hidden from view, yet within sight of Momiji's front door, Kusanagi fell deeper into his sulk.

"How could I have not known that Momiji had left town?" Kusanagi was questioning himself. However, he knew the reason. He had been so wrapped up in his own thoughts lately that he had barely been around Momiji for the past few weeks. 

All in one day he had learned that he had failed in protecting Momiji, nearly losing her. He also learned that he and Murakumo shared similar origins and that Murakumo had been able to reproduce. Murakumo being Momiji's father made him a bit uneasy. However the most emotional thing for him that day had been learning very possibly the location of his human parents' graves. 

His first memory was the day he received his mitamas. He could remember confusion staring at the giant green monster in front of him. Then an almost electrical burning sensation when the mitamas where embedded in him. Kusanagi remembered becoming more aware of everything, the smell of blood, the slightest rustle of the leaves, and colors and textures seemed more intense. However, the thing he was most aware of was he could sense the Kushinada and felt an overwhelming need to protect her. At first his awareness was mostly animalistic; however, as he grew he became more aware of his humanity and began to morn what was done to him. While he never wavered in his protection of Kaede, the other arigami learned he did not welcome contact with them. 

He had found out the location of the shrine Kaede had been sent to from Momiji's mother and it had matched his memories. Those memories were the reason why Kusanagi had been withdrawn from Momiji. He knew that Momiji felt like he was pushing her away and wanted to help him with his torments, but, he felt that she would never be able to understand his thoughts. While he wished that his parents had never been killed and himself shackled with mitamas, he could not bear the thought of never meeting Momiji no matter what the trails had been. He wanted to always protect her.

Of course Momiji now had a new protector. Kusanagi's fists clenched when he thought about Inda. He did not know enough about her and was uneasy about where her loyalties laid. What had been more frustrating was that he had not been able to observe her. Most of the time he could barely sense her. Inda always seemed very close to Momiji and yet his sense of her mitamas was so faint Kusanagi could not tell where she was. Until last night when she had come to spy on him! For once he could fully sense her and was not going to let her escape. He had been pissed when he noticed Momiji's presence was being hidden from him. Most likely with ceramics. And then to add insult to injury, **she kissed him! What bothered him most about the kiss was that right before Inda had kissed him, he had felt pulled towards her eyes. He had stayed rooted in place after she left until he felt Momiji's presence return and Inda's lessen. *Most likely Momiji gave her back the ceramic piece* he reasoned.**

Around dusk, his thoughts were interrupted by Momiji's car pulling up. "Now to find out what the little princess has been up to." He said with a smirk as he crouched ready to pounce and startle her when she would least expect it.

AN: I briefly refer to how Kusanagi acted in Blue Seed 2 which is where most of us get our angsty Kusanagi from since in Blue Seed the only time he calls himself a freak was when Kaede and Murakumo had tried to trap him in the dream created by the cat Arigami. In Blue Seed 2 for those who had not seen it, at one time mitamas where given to America as a gift. A scientist began implanting them and the TAC goes to help America fight them. There is a Female named Valencia that has a mitama and due to a few misunderstandings Momiji feels she is being replaced. Hopefully if anyone was confused that cleared it up with out giving away anything vital to the story.


	14. Practice

Boring disclaimer:  I do not own Blue Seed or any of its characters.  

Chapter 14

Practice

            "Bye Akiko!" Momiji chirped to her friend as Akiko got out of Momiji's car.  

            "Today was a lot of fun."  Akiko responded smiling.  "We should do this again."

            "When Kusanagi sprouts flowers from his head."  Momiji grumbled under her breath glaring balefully at the ground.  Akiko just laughed at Momiji sulk and waved goodbye as she entered her house.

            Momiji sullenly drove home.  She had asked Sakura and Akiko for help expecting to go out and buy a new wardrobe and maybe some new makeup and perfume to make herself irresistible to Kusanagi.  In essence a light hearted girl's day out in which she would return happy and refreshed with an updated look to turn Kusanagi's head.  "Boy did I have it wrong" Momiji sighed.  Instead she found herself in hell getting tips on how to seduce a man without him noticing in the hopes of overloading his defenses to the point that he would finally pursue her full out.  And if Sakura giving her lessons in erogenous zones had not been bad enough, they had had the misfortune to run into Kome.  As she stopped at a stoplight, Momiji repetitively hit her forehead on the steering wheel.  "As if the first time Kome tried to _help our relationship was not bad enough."_

            I can just see it now.  The next time she sees Kusanagi she will go swaggering up to him going "Kus oh boy.  Just the plant boy I've been wanting to see."  Kusanagi will step back a bit from her and look at Kome like he expects her to go mad at any moment.  Kome will continue on, undeterred.  "Kus oh boy, have you ever considered having relations with Momiji?"  Seeing Kusanagi's confused look she would elaborate.  "Do you want to have sex with Momiji?"  And I would **die!**

**            Of course, that was not even the worse thing to happen.  Since they where all discussing Momiji having sex, Akiko brought up that maybe Momiji should get some sort of birth control.  That was when it came up that she had already been taking depo provera for quite some time.  "I swear if I hear one more variance on the old say 'all dressed up with no place to go' I'm going to use my mitamas to kill every one of them!"  Momiji all but screamed as she gripped her steering wheel with a white knuckled grip.**

            Of course if it worked all the embarrassment would be worth it.  In her mind Momiji fantasized how she wanted her next meeting to go with Kusanagi.

                        ~~~~~~

            In Momiji's mind she saw her and Kusanagi in front of her house.  Song birds were chirping in the distance and all of the surroundings where slightly out of focus.  The only things in focus were Kusanagi and Momiji and they were so in focus that they nearly shined.  "I missed you" Kusanagi spoke in an overly sexy voice.  At this moment a breeze causes her white shirt to fly up exposing her new white satin push up bra which has a small pink kitten on the right breast looking like it is going to pounce right into Momiji's enhanced cleavage.

            "Aaiiee" Momiji yelled demurely trying to catch her shirt which happened to be designed to misbehave exactly this way.  However, when Momiji looked up at Kusanagi he had a slightly glazed look with a small drip of blood coming from his nose.  

            Kusanagi's hands flexed twice reflexively before he could talk.  "Momiji, when did you start wearing cute animals on your upper unmentionables?"  He stuttered still slightly dazed.

            "Do you like it?"  Momiji asked coyly.  "It has matching panties."  At which point she flipped up her skirt showing the matching white satin panties.  First she showed the front which had a larger version of the same kitten sitting demurely licking one of its paws.  Then she turned the show the back side which had writing in English.

            Turning back to Kusanagi she sees him take a large gulp.  "So" he begins hesitantly, "what does it say?"

            To which, Momiji smiled and walked up to him flawlessly utilizing the sexy walk Sakura had tried to teach her.  Placing her hand on Kusanagi's upper abs she let it slide down slowly and whispered huskily, "it says sex kitten."

            At which point Kusanagi shuddered delightful and grabbed Momiji roughly.  "I don't know what it is about you today, you just seem so sexy."  Pulling Momiji closer he groaned out, "I can no longer hold my self back Momiji.  I need you now."  

            Instantly the scene jumped to Momiji's bedroom which was decorated with roses and candles everywhere.  Cloths were a forgotten item and Kusanagi was devouring Momiji's lips while his hand roved her curves.  Momiji slid her hands up is chiseled abs till she reached his bottom mitama.  Gently stroking it she elicited a groa..**BEEEEEEEEP!!**

            Momiji was violently shaken from her fantasy by the lights of a car heading right for her.  The next few moments where filled with Momiji's screams as she frantically weaved between the oncoming cars with driving skills she never knew she possessed.  After a few harrowing moments Momiji was able to navigate to the correct side of the road and pulled over.  Practically hyperventilating, Momiji looked into her rear view mirror and was shocked that somehow no one had been injured due to her lapse in concentration.

            "Damn Sakura for putting those thoughts in my head."  Shaking like a leaf, Momiji looked down at her green hands still clutching the steering wheel.  "**GREEN!!  Why am I green?!"  Momiji panicked as she wrenched her mirror to get a better look at her face.  There was no doubt; she had turned into her Inda persona.  "Well, at least I know that if I transform unconsciously, I will always change to the same form."  Momiji mumbled as she tried to calm herself and release her mitamas.  Close as she could figure, when the "Kushinada" was in danger, she would automatically transform.  Maybe she would automatically transform to her Inda persona because she thought it was in her best interest.  With a shrug Momiji decided to step out of her car for a few minutes to calm her rattled nerves before she finished her drive home.**

            Leaning against her car, Momiji closed her eyes and let the breeze caused by the nearby traffic to carelessly blow through her loose shirt, causing the neckline to gape open and slide around.  She was glad that it had been dark since Momiji was pretty sure no one had noticed that the crazy driver careening across the rood had been green.  

            Fear gripped Momiji as the presence of an Arigami invaded her senses and she heard something thump in front of her.  Letting out a shrill squeal Momiji reflexively swung her arm out, her arigami powers instantly invoke allowing Momiji's arm to stretch enough to nail the attacker sending it into a nearby tree.  Opening her eye, Momiji looked at her attacker ready to fight.  Shock at her stupidity enveloped her as she saw that it was Kusanagi sitting at the base of the tree, eyes closed as he rubbed his head.  

For a few painful moments, Momiji was terrified that Kusanagi would focus back on her before she could suppress her Arigami powers.  *I'm pretty sure that knocking him into a tree and yelling out surprise I'm an Arigami too was not part of Akiko and Sakura's lessons.*  Momiji fretted, trying desperately to regain her composure as well as her true form.

            Luck was on her side and Momiji managed for once to get herself under control before Kusanagi shot up and roared, "what the hell?!  That bitch attacked me!"  Looking side to side with both of his arm blades exposed he looked ready to attack to nearest moving object.  This worried Momiji since she was the nearest moving object.

            "Uh… what?"  Momiji asked as meekly as she could.  Her dream meeting with Kusanagi was in shambles now, however in true Momiji style, she tried to see the brighter side.  While she was not fond of Kusanagi referring to her as a bitch, at least he did not seem to have noticed that she was the one to hit him.  Maybe, just maybe she could salvage this.

            "Where is she?  Where is Inda?"  Kusanagi ground out as he glared menacingly at the surrounding trees.  "I came to check on you and she blind sided me."  Then he added as an after thought, "Are you O.K.?"  

Momiji felt a bit uneasy under his sudden scrutiny.  "Um… Yeah I'm fine."  Momiji stuttered as she fiddled with the bottom hem of her shirt.  Then remembering that she was supposed to be trying to touch Kusanagi as much as possible she jerked her head up and stiffly walked over towards Kusanagi.  Three quarters of the way there, she stumbled over an invisible rock and fell head long into Kusanagi's chest.  *Well at least I touched him* Momiji consoled herself.  Now that she was so near to Kusanagi, Momiji felt the familiar urge to cling to him, however, both Sakura and Akiko had been very firm that she was not to hang on Kusanagi in any way.  Instead she was to caress him with both her words and her hands.  How, she did not have the faintest clue.  

Screwing up her courage, Momiji decided Kusanagi's arm was a safe place to start.  Hesitantly reaching out like Kusanagi's arm might bite her, Momiji hesitantly placed her hand on Kusanagi's arm just above his elbow.  "I just had a little scare while driving and was taking a breather."  As she was couched by Sakura, as soon as she finished speaking she drew her arm away.  Kusanagi looked intently at Momiji causing her to look down and fidget.  She was hoping that he took her awkwardness as left over fear from her near car crash.

Seeing Kusanagi still glaring at their surroundings Momiji decided to try to smooth things out.  Once again lightly resting her hand on Kusanagi's upper arm, Momiji spoke.  "Inda probably just hit you because she heard me scream."  She felt like the butterflies in her stomach were going to eat her alive.  She had so much riding on if she could pull off Akiko and Sakura's plan, and she felt so awkward.  Not to say that she had not felt awkward previously with Kusanagi.  It was just now she was more focused on had each of her movements were jerky like she was a puppet on strings.

            Kusanagi focused on Momiji and his body language relaxed.  "If she hits people because you scream…" he smiled before continuing, "A lot of people are going to get hit."

            Momiji could not help but pout.  First he calls her alter ego a bitch and now he is mocking her.  "**Kusanagi…" she began ready to smack him upside the head, but then stopped when she saw his continence become serious again.**

            "I don't like the fact that I can not sense her most of the time."  Kusanagi stated as he once again scanned their surroundings.  "She is from that other dimension and there is no way we can confirm if she is really on our side."

             Patting his arm, Momiji tried to reassure him.  "Oh don't worry.  Inda is just as likely to betray us as I am."  Momiji was proud that for once she had spoken clearly with out stuttering or giving away her secret a monumental feat when it came to her talking to Kusanagi.  But her small victory soon flicked out of existence when Momiji noticed that Kusanagi was looking quizzically at the hand that was currently patting his arm.  Snatching her hand back, embarrassed, Momiji realized that her attempted change in behavior was becoming obvious.  Luckily Kusanagi did not seem inclined to comment on her strange behavior yet. 

            "Not to be insulting princess, but you tend to be a bit too trusting for my comfort."  Kusanagi stated while crossing his arms.  "Besides, what I dislike the most is that I cannot sense her except for a few brief moments.  Otherwise it is like I always have the faintest tickle that she is near you, but I cannot spot her."  That said, Kusanagi leaped into the nearest tree and began to speed away.

Momiji suddenly remembered that she was not supposed to let him leave before she was ready.  Desperately she called out to Kusanagi.  "Kusanagi!  Wait!"

However he did not wait, instead he just hollered over his shoulder, "by the way, when did you start wearing funny animals on your bras too?"

            "Pervert!!"  Momiji screamed out, though privately she was thankful since she was sure now that her new bra was what had distracted Kusanagi so that he had not noticed that it was she who had hit him.  Grumbling as she got into her car and began to finish her drive home Momiji felt that for once she did owe Sakura.  Momiji had completely flubbed her first meeting with Kusanagi after her makeover.  Somehow she was sure that punching him was not part of Akiko and Sakura's plan.  Smacking herself on the forehead, Momiji also realized that she had let Kusanagi just leave like usual and while she had been touching him while she talked, she had only seemed to make him curious at her odd behavior.  

            Then a thought hit her.  She did not feel comfortable practicing Sakura's "art" as she was now.  However, if she was not Momiji, but Inda then she would not have to be so embarrassed.  "Anyways, Kusanagi wanted to get to know Inda better," Momiji said out loud with a smile.  Maybe today was salvageable.  


	15. Green Seeds of Romance

Disclaimer:  I do not own Blue Seed or any of its characters.

AN:  ADV recently announced that it bought the rights to Blue Seed 2.  (does a little dance of joy)  I do have to apologize for taking so long to update, life happened and if I told you about everything my whine fest would probably be as long as this chapter so instead I will get on with it and let you enjoy this next chapter.

Chapter 15:  green seeds of romance

Silence.  Not one sound betrayed Kusanagi's presence as he followed Momiji's car to the safety of her home.  After many years of practice, when Kusanagi wanted to, he made no more noise than a shadow.  However, while his body moved silently, in his head Kusanagi was screaming.  Anger, self-doubt, jealousy, longing, and fear all had their own voices to scream with.  Each screamed so that not one coherent thought actually formed.  There was only a swirling vortex of all the thoughts that caused Kusanagi pain.  It took all his control to not scream out, to not do anything but simply observe Momiji as she pulled up to her home and began to unload numerous bags from her car; she seemed perfectly oblivious as she even giggled a bit while unloading the last package.

After assuring himself of Momiji's safety, Kusanagi could take it no longer.  There was only a slight creak from the branch Kusanagi vacated in his rush to get somewhere where he could vent out his emotions in private.  In mere seconds Kusanagi found himself deep within the woods by a rocky outcrop.  It was here that he allowed himself a primal scream, pounding his fists into the rough surface of the rocks.  Kusanagi welcomed the bitter bit of the stones as his fists quickly began to bleed.  In a strange way it was comforting.  It was real pain.  Real pain took precedence over his emotional pain.  

Kusanagi allowed himself the luxury of not thinking only briefly.  Letting out a final scream of frustration, Kusanagi fell to the ground.  Sitting on the damp earth with his knees to his chest, Kusanagi rested his forehead on his knees reflecting on just why his life was so tormented.  *Because I'm a freak!*  He thought derisively.  Kusanagi looked down at the mitamas embedded in his hands and briefly entertained the thought of smashing them against the rocks.  However, in his experience, when the mitamas of an Arigami where destroyed the creature died.  He did not wish to die.  *I want to be normal.  She deserves better than a half human freak.*  Kusanagi look at his exposed arm blades with disgust.  *But then I could not protect Momiji* he amended.  Then his face darkened with bitterness.  *Not that she even needs me for that.  She has a _new protector.*  That was truly the source of his anguish.  His main purpose in life had always been to protect the Kushinada.  While his reason for protecting Momiji was different than his reason for protecting Kadea, he was still her protector.  Now not only had he failed to protect her.  But, someone else had taken his place.  *Now I could become normal and you would still be protected.*  However, Kusanagi could not accept someone else being the person **his princess turned to when trouble came.**_

Punching the ground once more, Kusanagi swore.  "Damn it Momiji.  Everything was so much easier before you."

"I'm sorry."

Instantly Kusanagi was on his feet ready to fight.  With eyes filled with animosity, he took in Inda's petulant stance.  In the calmness that always enveloped him when he needed to fight he took in every nuance of her stance.  By the way she was fidgeting she was nervous, scared even.  And yet, anger radiated from her stance.  What surprised him in a detached sort of way was the sorrow on her face.  None of these observations really mattered since he was already in motion to attack. 

For a moment it seemed as if Inda was just going to stand there and allow him to hit her.  It was a bit disappointing.  Then her eyes widened and Inda leaped backwards and up into a tree.  Kusanagi's fist barely grazing her foot as she retreated.  This was what Kusanagi wanted, a real fight.  With a slight smile and a gleam in his eye Kusanagi gave chase.  Being a cautious fighter he did not attack full force.  Instead he tested Inda looking for weak spots.  He found many.

At first Inda was just on the defensive.  Frantically leaping from branch to branch.  Barely escaping Kusanagi's many blows and only striking out randomly in an attempt to bat him away.  Kusanagi was getting a bit annoyed when each time she barely escaped she let out a high pitched "eep" or "ack."  With a snort of disgust he hollered out to her, "What are you going to do, protect Momiji by running away?"  Watching her nearly slip on a branch he taunted out again.  "Or better yet since you are such a klutz the Arigami will just assume you are Momiji."

Inda visibly angered and began to attack back in earnest.  At which point Kusanagi lightened up his attack and instead began to dodge Inda's attacks.  All the while taunting her by saying "too slow" and "almost got me that time."  During this time Kusanagi confirmed to himself that she seemed to not have any real fighting skill and was going on instinct.  He also learned that Inda only knew how to fight close range.  Turning your skin spiky only worked if the person was close enough to touch.  

With a smirk Kusanagi decided it was time to end the fight having spent  enough of his rage.  He decided not to shoot her with his energy ray since the charge up time would give her plenty of time to dodge.  Instead he judged about where her leg would be when she leaped next and sent his arm shooting out to grab it, planning to throw her to the ground before she could spike him.  However, Inda must have been tiring and was a bit slow.  So instead Kusanagi's arm hit her squarely on the left side of her chest.  As fast as he could, Kusanagi grabbed hold and flung her towards the ground.

**"KUSANAGI!****  LET GO OF MY BREAST!!"  **

The words echoed in Kusanagi's head as he on reflex yanked his arm back.  He then began to chuckle at the absurdity of it.  Perching on a branch, Kusanagi looked down at Inda's sprawled form, her glare making him chuckle more.  "So that is how you are going to fight Arigami…Yell at them for touching you.  You know you are not a very good protector."

"Well excuse me!"  Inda yelled up and she struggled to her feet.  "It is not like I asked to be dragged to another dimension and implanted with mitamas!"  Inda held out her wrist showing her two green mitamas, her face showing a mix of anger and frustration.  "I'm sorry I don't stand up to your expectations.  I had come out here to make nice and see if I could learn something from you."  Blinking rapidly in a vain attempt to reign in her tears, Inda tuned to leave.  "I guess I did learn something though."

Kusanagi was frozen.  Suddenly he realized what a jerk he had been to Inda.  He couldn't even imagine what it would be like to have been normal and then to have the guise of becoming an arigami slave thrust upon her.  He himself knew the strong urge to protect the Kushinada.  Inda still symbolized a time when he had failed to be there for Momiji, and he was not sure if she could be trusted.  However, Kusanagi also remembered his own anguish over his lost humanity as well of the fact that the TAC had not trusted him at first either.  Most of all though, he was annoyed with himself for allowing his own self-loathing to overlap to someone else.  Somewhere in Kusanagi's mind, Inda went from being an adversary to being an ally.  Refocusing on Inda, Kusanagi groaned at her tears.  He really did not know what to do with crying.  If anything they reminded him that she was just a girl, *or better yet a young women* he thought as he remembered the breast he had accidentally grabbed.  A girl that had had her life turned upside down by the arigami and now was trying pitifully to protect Momiji.  *She has done a better job of it than you have lately*  Kusanagi reprimanded himself.

Deciding that the best way to deal with her tears was to pretend they were not there, Kusanagi put on his best smile and leaped down in front of her.  "Well you did learn something.  You learned that you are not very good at fighting."  Then cocking his head to side a bit, Kusanagi pondered just how he was going to help her since he had never really taught anyone how to fight before.  "Shall we see what we can do about that?"  He questioned out loud.

The change in Inda was instant and overwhelming.  "Really!?"  she cried out in joy as she lunged towards Kusanagi, wrapping him in a stifling embrace.  

Whatever else she said in her rush of words was lost on Kusanagi as he tried to extract himself from her grip.  Each time he thought he had found the key to getting her to let go she would shift her position and latch on in an all-new way.  Finally in frustration he yelled out, "Would you just let go of me?!"  Mollified, Inda released her grip on Kusanagi and backed away with a quiet apology.  Running his fingers through his hair in exasperation, Kusanagi grumble, "You're worse than Momiji for mood swings and clinginess."  Seeing her fierce glower he couldn't help continuing.  "Japan is doomed."  He stated in a flat voice.

Laughing, Kusanagi shot off as Momiji's newest protector tried to take his head off.  "That was a close one.  Maybe in a few years you may actually hit close enough for me to feel a breeze."  He taunted.   Chuckling still at her newfound rage, Kusanagi stayed just out of her reach.  Taking on a serious scholar voice he began to lecture her.  "Now see how if I stay just a bit away from you, you cannot even harm me.  That is your main weakness.  You only seem able to do harm if I come close like this."  At that moment Kusanagi flipped over her head to hover behind Inda as she was perched on a branch and shoved her just enough to make her lose her balance.  Smirking at her ungraceful fall he continued his lecture.  "Seeing as you cannot fly you will need to improvise."

"But how?"  Inda almost whined as she regained her feet and looked up at Kusanagi.

"Well…"  Kusanagi started as he tried to think up an answer a bit uncomfortable with his new position as teacher.  "You seem to be able to reshape yourself.  Just make something that can go a lone distance or maybe shoot off something."

It was Inda's turn to ponder.  "Well I don't like the idea of shooting parts of me off.  It generally hurts when some part of me is separated from the rest of me.  Maybe I could shoot out clipping of my nails."  Inda looked experimentally at her hands and then pointed them at the nearest tree.  She stood still for nearly five minutes, chewing lightly on her lower lip and her eyes nearly crossing with concentration.

Finally Kusanagi decided to stop her before she sent an eyeball flying out.  "OK, OK.  That's enough of that.  Maybe you can try that later but let's try something else now.  How about reshaping yourself."

Once again, Inda pondered Kusanagi's suggestion.  "Well it is actually my skin and hair that I seem to change…"  She trailed off as various spiky formations formed from her hair and skin.  Kusanagi could not help but laugh as her hair formed one huge spike straight up and the image of her as a human drill entered his head.  Then he nodded thoughtfully as the tips of her fingers lengthened into long knives.  The knives kept growing till they were a little over a meter long.

"Now that might be useful."  Kusanagi watched Inda experimentally move her fingers watching them in mute fascination.  "Now, try to attack me," he commanded.  The result was comical.  Inda swept her arm out towards Kusanagi, intending to skewer him with her newfound claws.  However, she was not used to the length and her pinky claw immediately snagged on a tree, stopping all forward motion as her claw embedded itself into the trunk.  In the sudden shock of hitting the tree, Inda reflexively closed her hand causing her thumb claw to come swooping between her other claws neatly trimming her middle finger and because of the curve of the claw, almost stabbing Inda in her shoulder.  Kusanagi had to fight hard to not laugh.  In the end he decided *why not* and laughed whole-heartedly as Inda pouted.  

"OK"  Kusanagi started, once he could stop laughing.  "That may work if you shorten them a bit."  Inda seemed to agree and shortened her claws till they were only a quarter of the previous length.  After a few practice swipes it was clear that Inda liked the idea of fighting with claws.  "Now that you have that under control, we still need a way for you to attack in a more long range manner."  Kusanagi pondered for a bit.  

"Maybe I could try to stretch my arm out."  Inda put forth hesitantly.

"Sure let's try that."  Kusanagi agreed.  "It can also be really useful if you need to grab something."

"Pervert!"

While Kusanagi had not meant to grab her chest, he didn't really want her to know that.  Plus it was always a fun to rile someone up.  Looking down he couldn't help riling her some more.  "Wow when the red of your blush mixes with the green of your skin you turn a really gross color."  This got the reaction he wanted as she screamed in outrage and began attacking him once more.  Many gouges were left in the surrounding trees as she tried to use her new claws.  After she had worn out her rage, Kusanagi decided to get back to the teaching.  "What I was actually thinking about when I said grab something was that you may need to catch Momiji at sometimes, since she falls… a lot."

Inda just huffed at his last remark and then turned to face Kusanagi where he stood about 4 meters away and concentrated.  Inda stayed that way for quite awhile.  Occasionally jerking her arm out like she expected it to suddenly extend out and grab Kusanagi.  Kusanagi decided it was a lost cause and was caught completely by surprise when in fact her arm did in fact shoot out.  He nearly screamed as her hand grabbed him not on the arm, chest or head, but on his crotch.  "What the hell are you doing!?" he yelled out in a panicky voice as he hastily knocked her hand away and leaped back about three meters.

Inda was looking at him smugly.  "I just thought turnabout was fair play."  She chirped innocently.  She then looked at her hand where it lay on the ground.  "Um… How do you make it go back?"  She questioned with concerned eyes.  

Kusanagi shrugged.  "I never really thought about it.  It just goes back."

Inda looked down at her arm with ever widening eyes.  "Make it go back!  Make it go back!!"  She screeched as she shook her arm about in panic.  Kusanagi felt the need to back up a bit farther as there were still claws at the end of her wildly flailing arm.  "I don't want my arm dragging around" she whined.

Kusanagi had to chuckle at the thought of Inda having a four-meter long arm for the rest of her life.  He was brought back to reality as he had to duck Inda's flailing arm as she kept walking towards him in her panic.  "Calm down before you hurt yourself!!" he bellowed over the din of her panicked whining.  

"Well at least we know I can do a longer ranged attack."  Inda tremulously spoke as she tried not to twitch the arm that was clearly still freaking her out.

"Yeah.  You will grab the arigami in the crotch.  Then freak out and slash it to pieces."  He stated in a dead pan voice.  "Now calm down and try to focus on going back to neutral."  Kusanagi demanded as stood directly in front of her.

Kusanagi heard Inda take a couple of deep breaths.  Looking down at her arm Kusanagi waited till he saw it finally starting to go back to normal.  After her arm had gone about of a quarter of the way back to normal, Kusanagi saw out of the corner of his eye a color change.  Following Inda's arm up to her body he saw breasts, naked one.  **"YOU'RE NAKED!!"  Kusanagi yelled without thinking.  **

The scream that issued from Inda could have shattered glass.  "YOU PERVERT!" she screeched as she went to slap him.  However since her arm was currently twice its normal length, her elbow hit Kusanagi on the side of his head while the rest of her arm wrapped around and propelled him forward.  Her first scream was only a warm up for the one Inda released when Kusanagi collided with her and they fell to the ground with Kusanagi still on top.  

Light moved slowly compared to how fast Kusanagi pushed him self off of Inda and leaped about ten meters away to the safety of a tree.  Purposely not looking at Inda he yelled out.  "PERVERT?!  I'm not the one out here naked."  To which Inda only growled as she turned her back on him and restored herself back to normal.  Leaping away, Kusanagi yelled back, "That's enough for today."

He was halfway back to Momiji's house when a thought stopped him in his tracks.  *If Inda turned naked when she went back to neutral… she was naked the whole time.  That means when I grabbed her breast…*  "Shit."


	16. Morning Sunshine

Disclaimer:  I own nothing and no one.  

Chapter 16

Morning Sunshine

Ugh.

That was the only word for it.  Ugh.

Momiji rolled onto her stomach and burrowed her face into her pillow, tucking her hands under on either side of her head to form a comfortable pit in which she wished she could forever hide in.  Moving her tongue a bit, Momiji came to the uncomfortable realization that sometime in the night something had crawled into her mouth and died.

_"Momiji…"_

Vaguely Momiji knew that something was trying to wake her, but she tried to ignore it as she sought after the comforts of sleep again.  The room was nice and warm and just seemed to say, "Go ahead and sleep."  Momiji thought that was a good idea and tried to burrow deeper into her pillow; pressing her arms up from underneath the pillow so that her pillow could cover her ears and block out whatever was so annoying as to try to wake her.

"_Momiji…"_

What ever was trying to wake her was getting louder and no matter how hard Momiji tried to hide from the sound she found herself waking up.  As she woke up the least foggy part of her brain began to assert itself and was hinting that there really should not be anyone in her room.   "Go away."  Momiji moaned into her pillow.

_"No.  Wake up."  _

Light flooded into the room seeping through the crevices of Momiji's pillow to stab mercilessly at her tightly closed eyes.  With a groan Momiji reached one hand out from under her pillow just enough to catch the edge of the blanket she had tucked around her shoulders and pulled it up over her head.  Momiji could not remember ever feeling so groggy.  Though being groggy in the first place was making it hard to remember anything.  In her vain fight against waking, Momiji also became aware of another discomfort.  She was hungry.  Very hungry.  A sound that was a mix between a groan and a growl emitted from her throat as Momiji realized that she would have to get up now since she for sure could not return to the comforts of sleep while her body was demanding food in a louder voice than her rude awakener.

With a whoosh Momiji's blanket was torn from her grasp and thrown completely off her bed.  Instinctively she curled up tighter, burrowing her face deeper into her pillow to try to escape the bright light conspiring to wake her fully.  That was until the realization that the sunlight felt good hit her barely functioning brain.  Instead of mercilessly stabbing at her it caressed her in a loving embrace of warmth and peacefulness.  Moaning her pleasure, Momiji rolled onto her back, her arms stretching out underneath her pillow to grasp and lightly pull on her hair as she stretched them to their limit while her toes first pointed and then curled releasing small pops.  Fresh morning air flowed lightly over her body, smelling slightly of evergreens and dew and causing goose bumps to briefly form in waves as the breeze cooled her flesh and the sun warmed it back up.  Stretched to her full length Momiji sighed her pleasure and briefly pondered opening her eyes before discarding such an unpleasant idea.  Much better to let the suns warmth lull her back to sleep.  While the fresh air did seem to heighten her senses, it in no way encouraged Momiji to join the waking world.  Within seconds she almost reached the nirvana of a few moments stolen sleep.

"Umm...  Momiji?"

There was no doubt about it; it was Kusanagi's voice forcing her from the bliss of sleep.  With a slight bit of desperate hope Momiji thought *He sounds a bit uncertain.   Maybe if I ignore him a bit longer he will go away.*  Satisfied with her logic, Momiji let out a small mew as she rolled back onto her stomach to better ignore her rude intruder as well as let the sun caress the rest of her; her arms once again tucked under her pillow so as to raise the sides and better protect her eyes and ears from unwanted intrusions.  She nearly screamed when there was a slight movement in the air around her and the blanket was dropped back onto her blocking out the sun's blissful embrace.  Releasing a childish growling whine, Momiji viciously kicked the blanket off and rolled once again onto her back.  Pushing her arms underneath her pillow so that her hands emerged out the top, Momiji gently grabbed the roots of her hair and pulled to try and relieve some of the tension her visitor was creating by **not letting her sleep!  **

Momiji barely cracked her eyes open and blearily tried to focus on Kusanagi.  Once she located him standing at the far corner of her room by the window she ground out an irritated "What?!"  Closing her eyes to the piercing rays she waited impatiently for what was surely going to be a maddening response designed to annoy her and pondered how the sun could feel so go on her body and be so brutal to her eyes.

"Not that I mind your sleeping attire…"  Kusanagi began in his usual cocky tone before seeming to run out of steam.

Memories brutally slammed into Momiji's head as she remembered last night.  After unloading her car, Momiji had the dubious task of finding new homes for her new treasures or tortures as she sarcastically thought.  She had paused with dread when she got to her new pajamas.  *I just had to go and promise to wear one of these tonight, didn't I?*  With a sigh, Momiji decided to pick out her pajamas.  Everything Sakura had picked out barely covered her butt and tended to dip so low in the front, Momiji suspected that her breast would constantly pop out while she was sleeping.  Akiko's selections were no better since while they were technically covering, many of them even having pants, they were all at least partially transparent.  To add insult to injury, she had been forbidden to wear normal panties with her pajamas because they would surely clash.  Luckily, Sakura had tried to lighten the blow to Momiji's sleep time comfort by first selecting a creamy silk slip that actually came down to her mid thighs and while it was a bit see thru if one was looking for it did not blatantly cry out "Look at me!  Look at me!   I'm virtually naked!"  Best of all, the material was so soft and light it felt like nothing at all.  However, Momiji was still a bit nervous about wearing it so she decided to put it off by going in search of Kusanagi and hopefully being able to make friends with him as Inda.

Momiji's brain was still being lulled by the relaxing sun and her desire for more sleep so, luckily, her blush only went down to her chest.  "Sakura and Akiko picked it out for me."  Momiji muttered in embarrassment, though she was still too relaxed to open her eyes, let alone cover herself up.  Somehow the part of her that wanted to enjoy the sunlight and go back to sleep (which was most of her) was able to assert the logic that she was going to have to get used to Kusanagi seeing her on occasion in more daring pajamas than these since he felt he could enter her room anytime, so she might just as well get used to it.

"Really?!"  Was all Kusanagi said.  His voice was definitely mocking though it seemed a bit strained.

Momiji could hear the smirk in his voice and it annoyed her.  "Yes really."  Momiji ground out cracking her eyes once again to glare at Kusanagi.  "Some of the others are even worse so stop acting like a pervert and get used to it."

"The others are even worse?  I have to admit I'm curious."

Hearing the suppressed laughter in Kusanagi's voice, Momiji decided she would kill him first and then hunt down Akiko and Sakura for setting her up for this humiliation.  Emitting a growled that ended in a scream, Momiji shot up to a sitting position and flung her eyes open to glare in full force and Kusanagi.  "Was there a reason for you being here, or did you just want to be perverted?!"  

Momiji swore Kusanagi mouthed something to himself about wishing it was the second choice but she wasn't sure.  There was a slight pause before he looked her firmly in the eyes and demanded, "Where is Inda?"

"She wants to be left alone."  Momiji started thinking that with how awake she now was there was no chance of going back to sleep and her stomach was back to demanding food.

"It's important Momiji."  Kusanagi's tone of voice had gone completely serious.

A slight bit of adrenalin shot thru her system at the thought that Kusanagi may want to speak to her because some new Arigami was around.  The anticipation of finally being able to do something in a fight was enough to make her want to get up.  Of course there was the problem of getting Kusanagi to go away and hopefully not notice when she changed over.  Her mind worked in overdrive finally deciding to pull from her own circumstance.  "Why don't you go and wait where you fought last night and I will tell her to meet you there."  Before Kusanagi could protest Momiji continued, "She doesn't sleep in much so I suspect she wouldn't like you dropping in."  Momiji was sure that that would solve her problem.  Of course she forgot to factor in that Kusanagi was a pervert.  

Smirking evilly Kusanagi took on a bored tone and stated, "Considering she fights in the nude, I'm sure she would not mind."  

Leaping up, intent on trying to beat the perversion out of Kusanagi, Momiji yelled out, "KUSANAGI…."  That was all she got out before her mind became fully awake and she realized something was wrong, or more correctly missing.  Life seemed to move in slow motion so she could savor the sinking feeling of dread.  Desperately, Momiji remembered that the pajamas she had picked out where so light and silky smooth they felt like practically nothing.  Practically was the operating word.  Looking down at her body, Momiji let out a gasp of pure horror and embarrassment.  In a strangely detached way she noticed that it was possible to blush clear down to your toes.  

Momiji did not move nor make a sound for a whole second, so intent was she in building up her murderous rage.  "**KUSANAGI!!"  But he was already gone.   *Now I'm really looking forward to seeing Kusanagi as Inda.*  Momiji  thought murderously as she played with the idea of beating him into the ground.  That was until she remembered that he now knew she was naked when she fought.  **

"Somebody sacrifice me now."  Whined Momiji as she fell into a pitiful heap onto her floor.

AN:  I was thinking about adding lemons to this story I feel it would fit in easily yet since I have yet to go over the hurdle of writing a lemon I'm a bit unsure.  I do love challenges but I would like to know if it would offend any of you.


End file.
